World Poker Tour seriously behind the 8-ball

Despite an amazingly popular circuit of televised, prestigious poker tournaments and arguably credit for starting the poker explosion, World Poker Tour Enterprises is struggling to keep their company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. This will be an immediate challenge for the new interim CFO of WPT Enterprises, Thomas Flahie.

“We are very pleased to welcome Tom to the World Poker Tour team,” said Steve Lipscomb, WPT Founder, President and CEO. “Tom has a wealth of finance and accounting expertise and a particularly strong management record with an emphasis on growth businesses. We look forward to his valuable input and hands-on participation as we right size our operations and continue to focus our business on our growth initiatives of television sponsorship, ClubWPT.com, and WPT China.”

The company is facing problems with NASDAQ because their stock share price has been below a dollar for some time. WPT received a notice from NASDAQ in August when their share price had been below one dollar for a period of thirty consecutive days. The company has 180 days to become compliant with the NASDAQ regulations or they will be de listed. To become compliant the stock price must stay above one dollar for at least ten days. Right now the stock price is hovering around fifty cents per share and is struggling to meet required one dollar mark.

President and CEO Steve Lipscomb had the following to say regarding the future of WPT Enterprises:
“We continue to be disappointed in our online gaming results and have begun directing resources in our growing sponsorship business. On the other hand, we continue to be encouraged by the strength of our brand in the domestic and international marketplace.”

WPT has reached an agreement with Fox Sports Net to air episodes of season seven of the World Poker Tour.