by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Jun 17, 2012 | Updated on Jun 17, 2012The Epic Poker League hasn’t exactly been one of the great success stories of the poker world. Since it was first announced last year, many players and observers wondered how Federated Sports and Gaming (FS+G) – the parent company that eventually named their league the EPL – would manage to raise enough money to survive without an associated online poker room or sponsorship. It came as no surprise, then, when the league suspended its activities going forward, although many though they’d at least manage to get through a full season before it happened.Now, the short-lived league has a brand new owner. Pinnacle Entertainment, a land-based casino operator based in Nevada, has purchased the assets of both FS+G and Federated Heartland, the company set up by FS+G after they purchased the Heartland Poker Tour. Pinnacle paid out $4.2 million to pick up the Heartland Poker Tour, which has been a successful fixture of the American live poker scene for several years. Pinnacle has previously hosted HPT events in their casinos, and seems likely to continue operating the tour without too many major changes.Of more interest to many in the poker world, though, is the purchase of the Epic Poker League. It goes to show just how little the EPL brand is worth in the eyes of the industry that Pinnacle was able to acquire FS+G’s assets for just $300,000. In fact, Pinnacle didn’t even have to put up any new money in order to submit the winning bid; instead, Pinnacle made a credit bid, simply wiping $300,000 of the debt owed to them by FS+G off the balance sheets in order to purchase the company. At the time when FS+G declared bankruptcy, they were said to owe $2 million to Pinnacle, as well as another $2 million to All In Production, the company from which they purchased the Heartland Poker Tour.It is unclear what plans Pinnacle has for the Epic Poker League. The tournament series stopped with one regular season event remaining in their first season, after which a $1 million freeroll was planned for the top points-earners in the league. Over the course of 14 months, FS+G and the Epic Poker League managed to accumulate almost $8 million in debts, while only generating about $37,000 in revenue.
