Home / Poker News December 2011 / The Poker Grapevine – The Man Behind Full Tilt Poker
The Poker Grapevine – The Man Behind Full Tilt Poker
Posted by: Jo Martin - Thu, 2011-12-01 14:34
Raymond Bitar was among the people indicted on Black Friday, and that’s when most people in the
on line poker world first heard of him. Bitar was the one responsible for the success of the Full Tilt brand which – let’s be honest – had been quite impressive before Black Friday. Bitar was the one who took over the company back when Full Tilt poker didn’t mean a whole lot to online poker players. He was the one who nursed the fledgling operation into a full blown monster and he was the one who hired the on-site professionals – a practice which is the accepted way to generate additional player interest and traffic to this very day. There’s a reason why people know so little about Bitar: he was always careful to operate from the background like a skilled puppet-master, staying clear of the spotlight whenever possible.
Bitar was the engine of the operation, while Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson were the chassis and the paintjob. One shouldn’t underestimate Lederer’s job with the company either though. As president of Tiltware, Lederer wasn’t just involved in every decision made at the executive level: he was in fact the one without whom Bitar never really decided anything. According to some of Full Tilt’s ex-employees, Bitar wasn’t a particularly impressive boss. As matter of fact, for the newly hired, it seemed like he was taking his orders from Lederer.
In other news: Epic Poker has struck a major partnership deal with USA Today. The Global Poker Index, a ranking system of top 300 poker players will thus be published in print as well as in the online edition of the publication.
Big Lead Sports is also in on the deal. Epic Poker will be the exclusive content provider for BLS, and the GPI published will bear the name: the USA Today Global Poker Index.
According to Jeffrey Pollack, the EPL’s Executive Chairman, the partnership will help weave poker into the mainstream news cycle.
