UK & Ireland PokerNews Round-Up: Paddy Power Sued By Former Manchester United Star
It's time for your weekly catch up of all going ons in the world of UK & Ireland PokerNews. There's plenty to talk about, so let's kick it off without further adieu.
Irish gambling giant, Paddy Power, are no strangers to controversy. It seems a day can't go by without them pushing the boundaries of taste with their advertisements and social media posts, and now it appears they have offended the wrong person.
Former Manchester United and Republic of Ireland star Roy Keane was made aware that Paddy Power had used his image, without his consent, in a mock-up of William Wallace from the film Braveheart. Keane has taken exception to this and is in the process of suing Ireland's number one bookmaker.
On a more positive note, another British player won a bracelet at the 2015 World Series of Poker (WSOP), taking the total haul to four leading into the Main Event. Gerald Ringe, a property developer from London, walked away with the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better title, a gold bracelet and $180,943 in prize money.
We're going out on a limb here but we think Grafton will eclipse his career-high 40th place in the world rankings soon; he currently resides in 100th.
Also in Las Vegas, Leeds-based Milan Harper nearly went the distance in the partypoker WPT500 Aria. Harper, who qualified for the $2 million guaranteed event for free as part of partypoker's Kings Of Vegas promotion, saw his tournament end in ninth place, a result worth $33,000.
A little closer to home — OK, a lot closer to home — "Marty7" won the PokerStars Sunday Rebuy for $33,075 while Ben "F3nix35" Dobson and Ireland's Daragh "daragh999" Davey collected $24,986 and $16,800.75 respectively for deep runs in this weekend's Sunday Majors.
Another online grinder, the ever-popular Sam Grafton, gave the WSOP a miss this year in order to concentrate on his online game. Gratfon has put in some phenomenal volume of late and it's paying off as is evident of his continual climb up the UK & Ireland online poker rankings. We're going out on a limb here but we think Grafton will eclipse his career-high 40th place in the world rankings soon; he currently resides in 100th.
Away from the virtual felt and over to the live scene in Ireland where this weekend the Full Tilt International Poker Open heads to Cork for the latest stop on its 2015 tour. The IPO is extremely popular and with the backing of Full Tilt, its popularity can only increase.
Two business related stories round off our round-up, the first coming from the bwin.party group. This week, the parent company of partypoker notified the London Stock Exchange that GVC Holdings had bid 110p per share for bwin.party plc, valuing the company at more than £900 million. Talks between the two companies are ongoing, while 888Holdings have said it has put a bid in bwin.party too.
Lastly, the gambling industry continues to consolidate with Unibet agreeing to purchase the online division of British bookmaker, Stan James, for £19 million. Stan James will keep its 90+ betting shops as part of the deal.
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