Instagram playboy Dan Bilzerian is to be the new face of Indian gaming site FTR Poker after a takeover by BlitzPoker. The American everyone loves to hate is once again hitting the headlines in a business capacity and many wonder if things will turn out as normal.
Dan Blizerian and Shady Business Practices
It’s barely a couple of weeks since Bilzerian hit the headlines over his business practices concerning his company Ignite.
Ignite was set up to sell lifestyle products such as cannabis products and fancy booze, using Blizerian’s image as a selling point.
The issues came to light after company accounts were filed with the Canadian Stock Exchange detailing $50 million losses in a single year. Okay, every large company trying to grow quickly can spend such a sum but the money has to be spent on useful things.
It turns out that Bilzerian was using the company accounts as his personal piggy bank.
Fired President Counters
More news is coming out that the president of Ignite was fired after questioning Bilzerian’s spending habits.
Curtis Heffernan told how Bilzerian is a bit of a charlatan who doesn’t own half of the stuff he is pictured with.
Forbes Magazine reported,
“The house and everything else—the models, the flights, the yachts, etc.—is charged to the corporate tab of Ignite International Ltd., the company Bilzerian founded and serves as CEO and majority shareholder,”
A whopping $2.4 million annual rent for one property shows how the $50 million disappeared quite quickly.
Other ridiculous expenses included,
“$40,000 rock climbing wall, a $15,000 ping-pong table, and a $130,340 Bahamas photo shoot”
Narcissism at its best.
After filing a lawsuit against Bilzerian, Heffernan was backed up by former colleagues who spoke anonymously to confirm the allegations.
One laughable point that came out recently is that Ignite actually has a whistleblower policy, though obviously not if you take aim at Bilzerian.
Heffernan flat out refused to sign off on company expenses that included $26,000 to boost Bilzerian’s Instagram following.
BlitzPoker and FTR Poker – Same Story?
This takeover of FTR Poker by BlitzPoker has people thinking whether or not this will be the same story. Just how much clout does Bilzerian have in this company?
FTR runs on the Spartan Poker Network, which is India’s fourth largest poker operator. The press release said,
“Following the Proposed Acquisition, BlitzPoker will run on one of the largest networks in India, a network with over a million registrations and over 75,000 active users,”
We have to wonder what will come next. Out of Bilzerian’s 30 million Instagram followers 7 million are from India. That’s some following, and quite unexpected in such a religious country.
BlitzPoker CEO Chris Neville is optimistic for the near future. He thinks that the platform has huge potential and will no doubt have learned lessons from recent news.
He said,
“BlitzPoker has been growing at 30%-40% per month in the last quarter and has added 40,000 new customers. This type of growth is unheard of without seven to eight-figure marketing spends,”
“We are hopeful that Dan’s influence and brand will allow the company to grow into one of the biggest international gambling companies before 2021-2022,”
Time will tell, and we look forward to seeing if Bilzerian can behave himself for once.
Don’t forget to check out the latest poker news to see what’s been going on in the poker world and, of course, at the WSOP 2020.
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