World Poker Tour Enterprises Settles Player Lawsuit

April 22 - In 2006, several top poker players in the industry, among them Chris Ferguson and Annie Duke, brought a lawsuit against World Poker Tour Enterprises for violating state and federal antitrust laws by releasing players' names and images without offering any compensation in return.

While World Poker Tour Enterprises continues to deny that its contracts violated any antitrust laws, the company finally reached an out of court settlement with the five players, namely Ferguson, Duke, Andrew Bloch, Phil Gordon and Howard Lederer.

Another two players, World Series of Poker champ Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer, who were originally part of the group of pros who laid the lawsuit, withdrew after the case dragged on.

Under the terms of Friday's settlement, a new standard release form would be made available to players at all future World Poker Tour events.

The settlement allows this coming Saturday's WPT championship in Las Vegas to go ahead as scheduled with the full complement of professionals, as was previously planned.

Chris Ferguson, speaking for the five professional poker players said: "We are happy to have come to an agreement that is fair to all players, and to have put in place a new release that clears up ambiguities in how players' images may be used. We are especially happy that this new release will apply to all poker players who wish to participate in WPT tournaments and events. WPT has created some of the best poker events in the world, and we are excited to participate in them once again."