Potential Deals

[Wayne Crimi]

I have no information regarding the financial status of the IPT. However, I feel compelled to say something about the prospects of any deal, IPO etc... because I have a lot of experience with investing.

What I am reading in these threads is almost ridiculous.

Obviously, the IPT is hemmoraging red ink at this point. If not, at least some of the players would be getting paid.

Who in their right mind is going to buy the IPT or take a piece of it unless the present owners can demonstrate an imminent huge increase in the cash flow from various sources?

So what are the potential sources of income?

TV comes to mind first, but if what has been posted on these boards is correct, the IPT actually had to PAY to get the TV coverage!

Surely no one thinks there's going to be millions of dollars of video downloads of the matches or sales of IPT goods. There are already sources of both internet videos and tapes available. As far as I know none of them is doing tens of millions of dollars of business. That is probably what would be required to run an operation that promises such huge purses, pays for TV, and has other operating expenses.

Finally, the qualifiers will generate some money, but they are likely to fade rapidly as a source of income as all the pipe dreamers keep getting knocked off by the handful of players that actually have a chance to
qualify.

Pool has always suffered from a lack of "major" corporate sponsorship because of low ratings and the demographic. So forget about that.

Heck, if someone offered me this deal they would have to pay me a substantial amount of money to manage it until I could liquidate it properly!

I hate to be such a downer because I love the game wish the best players could make a great living.

I hope I am wrong about this, but it looks very much like a pyramid scheme that blew up very early in the process.

 

[cueball1950]

I have no information regarding the financial status of the IPT. However, I feel compelled to say something about the prospects of any deal, IPO etc... because I have a lot of experience with investing.

What I am reading in these threads is almost ridiculous.

Obviously, the IPT is hemmoraging red ink at this point. If not, at least some of the players would be getting paid.

Who in their right mind is going to buy the IPT or take a piece of it unless the present owners can demonstrate an imminent huge increase in the cash flow from various sources?

So what are the potential sources of income?

TV comes to mind first, but if what has been posted on these boards is correct, the IPT actually had to PAY to get the TV coverage!

Surely no one thinks there's going to be millions of dollars of video downloads of the matches or sales of IPT goods. There are already sources of both internet videos and tapes available. As far as I know none of them is doing tens of millions of dollars of business. That is probably what would be required to run an operation that promises such huge purses, pays for TV, and has other operating expenses.

Finally, the qualifiers will generate some money, but they are likely to fade rapidly as a source of income as all the pipe dreamers keep getting knocked off by the handful of players that actually have a chance to
qualify.

Pool has always suffered from a lack of "major" corporate sponsorship because of low ratings and the demographic. So forget about that.

Heck, if someone offered me this deal they would have to pay me a substantial amount of money to manage it until I could liquidate it properly!

I hate to be such a downer because I love the game wish the best players could make a great living. The problem is that the players keep oraganizing around people that are either semi-thieves, other players with inflated egos about their business acumen because they can play pool well, and other assorted riff raff.

I hope I am wrong about this, but it looks very much like a pyramid scheme that blew up very early in the process.

TAP TAP TAP...................mike

 

[Eydie Romano]

TV comes to mind first, but if what has been posted on these boards is correct, the IPT actually had to PAY to get the TV coverage!

Great post indeed!

Yes, they paid and from what I have been told, they have LOST 95 cents on the dollar doing it. Even with all the discounts provided to people such as KT that use the media as a income, it has been a HUGE loss.

I have been told that, it is absolutely ludicrous to think that Dr. Ho would buy this tour now (if he had ever been really interested) considering that Trudeau was linked to Wynn AND the Internet gambling is now deceased.

Let me assure you that a lot of people are very well informed on what the situation is at the IPT, but feel their hands are tied for one reason or another to be able to rat the whole production out.

 

[Ruthless]

I don't understand even why Stanley Ho who is 83 yrs old, has 17 children, $3.6 Billion (2005 estimate), & several Hotels/Casinos would even want to venture into this losing situation? Could it be Senility?

 

[jjinfla]

Good post until you said pyramid scam. It is not a pyramid scam. If it was it would have run out of people in the first few weeks and be done and gone by now. Plus the Feds would have been all over his ass.

Many times I have asked what his plan was and never was able to get a reasonable answer. The best I can figure is that they expected to draw a lot of people into it by having qualifiers. It did seem to work for a while and then people just lost interest.

If he was going to run a business where he is paying out a million in prizes and it costing him a million to run the event then it does not take a genius to understand that he has to take in two million to break even.

He had money coming in with the qualifiers and the membership club but it did not reach the amount needed for him to break even, let alone show a profit.

In all likelyhood there never was any deal with Ho. It was just a name he tossed around. If there was a deal then surely we would have heard something from Ho about it.

Maybe the membership club will survive. That is pretty nice. Although if they do not provide any new clips there then that too will fade.

Jake

 

[Jimk]

I have no information regarding the financial status of the IPT. However, I feel compelled to say something about the prospects of any deal, IPO etc... because I have a lot of experience with investing.

What I am reading in these threads is almost ridiculous.

Obviously, the IPT is hemmoraging red ink at this point. If not, at least some of the players would be getting paid.

Who in their right mind is going to buy the IPT or take a piece of it unless the present owners can demonstrate an imminent huge increase in the cash flow from various sources?

So what are the potential sources of income?

TV comes to mind first, but if what has been posted on these boards is correct, the IPT actually had to PAY to get the TV coverage!

Surely no one thinks there's going to be millions of dollars of video downloads of the matches or sales of IPT goods. There are already sources of both internet videos and tapes available. As far as I know none of them is doing tens of millions of dollars of business. That is probably what would be required to run an operation that promises such huge purses, pays for TV, and has other operating expenses.

Finally, the qualifiers will generate some money, but they are likely to fade rapidly as a source of income as all the pipe dreamers keep getting knocked off by the handful of players that actually have a chance to
qualify.

Pool has always suffered from a lack of "major" corporate sponsorship because of low ratings and the demographic. So forget about that.

Heck, if someone offered me this deal they would have to pay me a substantial amount of money to manage it until I could liquidate it properly!

I hate to be such a downer because I love the game wish the best players could make a great living. The problem is that the players keep oraganizing around people that are either semi-thieves, other players with inflated egos about their business acumen because they can play pool well, and other assorted riff raff.

I hope I am wrong about this, but it looks very much like a pyramid scheme that blew up very early in the process.

Well said. Players are always on the look for an easy buck and it makes them easy targets. I know all players aren't this way but a lot of them are. They need to get someone with businees knowledge and honesty to represent them. Do PGA players run their organization? Or bowling for that matter. Pool is just steeped in such a fowl history of people trying to get over on the other guy and always just looking out for themselves.

 

[jjinfla]

I don't understand even why Stanley Ho who is 83 yrs old, has 17 children, $3.6 Billion (2005 estimate), & several Hotels/Casinos would even want to venture into this losing situation? Could it be Senility?

Therein lies the rub.

Stanley Ho is not senile. Nor is he a fool. Nor does he want anything to do with the IPT.

So who are the fools? Why we are, for ever believing that KT ever had something to sell in the first place. All he really has is a name and a website. And a bunch of videos of people playing pool.

While watching the KOTH match I realized that no one is going to want to watch that. It was too long, play was too slow, and was extremely bad play. Especially with Sigel waving his stick around.

Oh well, it is almost over. What will we do then?

Jake

 

[Ruthless]

Oh well, it is almost over. What will we do then?

Jake

We will wait for Pinky (Deno) & The Brain's (Kevin) next adventure in trying to take over the World

 

[VonRhett]

Precisely! Who said that Stanley Ho was ever going to acquire the IPT, anyways? Oh yeah, it was KT. Well, that makes me feel better, cause KT would never misrepresent anything....

Also, there is a finite (very limited, in fact) number of methods for determining the Valuation of a given Business. Regardless of which method you use, including creative variations and projected income based on hypotheticals (think Enron), the IPT is not worth a fraction of the number KT was throwing around. Small fraction, perhaps - like 10% max.

What KT could have sold is the Brand Name (before he ruined it the past 30-days), coupled with the fact that he had 150 of the world's best players under Contract (think Don King). Then factor in global online betting for the events, and the modified business model might have worked. So Ho Interactive could have owned the Billiard Industry's Gambling activities.

But why buy a debt-laden <failed> business, with no chance of Americans being able to wager online? Recurring revenue doesn't even cover Operating Expenses, and there is NO OTHER REVENUE MODEL available to the IPT.

</Ramble>
-von

I don't understand even why Stanley Ho who is 83 yrs old, has 17 children, $3.6 Billion (2005 estimate), & several Hotels/Casinos would even want to venture into this losing situation? Could it be Senility?