Some guy named Bruce Bibbero is selling a $300 sponsorship seminar under the name Need Sponsorship to racers, claiming he has the answer to helping you raise dollars.
Sounds nice but before you throw your tire money to this guy read below and be very careful:
[I]Pokerati.com is reporting that the Sports Legends Challenge Poker Tournament has been cancelled or at least postponed to an undisclosed date.
The premise of the event, which was slated to feature the likes of Phil Hellmuth:
“Party-party-party with not just poker pros but real celebrity athletes, and $10 million worth of prizes, all on a beach!” The event was to take place at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.
Here is the letter that was sent out this week:
Hello,
On behalf of the Sports Legends Challenge, this letter is to inform you that due to circumstances beyond our control, we have decided to reschedule the inaugural Sports Legends Challenge event.
From the outset, our unvarying commitment has been to produce a world class event for participants, sponsors and spectators. It is our conviction, that this goal can best be achieved by rescheduling the event for a domestic location that will not only make the event more accessible to major population centers, but also make travel much easier for the participants. We are also modifying the time of year for the event so that weather issues are much less of a concern (a major issue for a September event in the Bahamas).
We are pleased to note that not only are the investors involved in the program fully supportive of this change, but it is also supported by our key sponsors, partners and affiliates. The essence of the program will be unchanged - creating unique opportunities for sports and gaming fans to interact with some of the greatest Sports Legends of our time along with some of the world’s top poker pros while competing for major cash prizes. However, we plan to use the time leading up to the rescheduled event to add elements and make adjustments that will make it even more exciting.
Over the next few days we will provide you with additional information about the rescheduled event, including the new location and dates. We appreciate your patience in working with us to accommodate this change and will do all in our power to help ensure that the Sports Legends Challenge is a highly successful event.
Thank you,
Bruce Bibbero, CEO and Larry Lubin, President
There is a bigger problem, Pokerati points out. Those who forked over thousands of dollars to attend (not to mention air fare to and from the Bahamas) are not exactly sure whether they will be refunded their money since the event is supposedly being “rescheduled” and the Sports Legends Challenge website claims that refunds will be offered only if the event is “cancelled”.
Then there is the situation with Bibbero and Lubin previously backing out of planned poker tournaments and a lawsuit that followed.
Sludikoff Gaming Tournements Inc. of Las Vegas, led by longtime gaming industry publisher Stanley Sludikoff, last year filed a lawsuit in Clark County District Court against Hall of Fame World Poker Championship LLC, a Nevada company, and that firm’s principals, Bruce Bibbero of Marietta, Ga., and Lawrence Lubin of Alpharetta, Ga., according to a report that appeared in the Las Vegas Sun earlier in the year.
According to the lawsuit, Sludikoff’s company was hired in 2007 by Bibbero and Lubin to help them launch a new celebrity poker tournament offering teams of athletes and celebrities the opportunity to advance to a final round and win a $1 million prize. One of Sludikoff’s roles was to line up casinos as sponsors of the events, including the final round.
Sludikoff Gaming, which said it was initially paid $10,000 per month for working on the project, said the Hall of Fame company later tried to profit from its experience, expertise and reputation without compensating it and also made defamatory statements about Sludikoff Gaming to casino officials and others in the gaming industry.
Bibbero, Lubin and Hall of Fame World Poker Championship then claimed in a lawsuit that Sludikoff made false allegations and was an abuse of process.
"Defendants had an ulterior purpose other than resolving a legal dispute,’’ says the suit filed against Sludikoff last week.
Gambling911.com will continue to follow this story and follow up should new dates be announced for the Sports Legends Challenge.
This isn?t the first time that Bruce Bibbero and Larry Lubin, the minds behind the Sports Legends Challenge, have attempted to put on a celebrity poker event. It?s also not the first time they?ve run into trouble in such a venture. The two men?s previous attempt at a marriage of big-money poker and guys we used to watch hit each other on television, the Hall of Fame World Poker Championship, is still entangled in a legal battle with Sludikoff Gaming Tournaments over a planned 2007 event that that never came to fruition.
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Venetian sues over cancelled poker tournament
Hall of Fame World Poker Championship LLC, a poker tournament organizer, was sued this week by the owner of the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas over an allegedly unpaid invoice.
Suit was filed in the Clark County Distric Court by Venetian Casino Resort LLC, which is owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corp.
The lawsuit says Atlanta-based Hall of Fame World Poker Championship last year booked hotel suites and conference space and arranged for food and beverage services.
The number of suites booked varied daily between 20 and 41, the booking contract shows.
The bookings were for July 11 through July 18 of this year for an event called the Sports Legends Challenge, court records show.
But the defendant failed to pay a deposit of $25,808 and later canceled the event, the Venetian suit says.
The cancellation triggered a cancellation fee agreed to in the contract of $155,625, which, with 18 percent interest through Friday, has grown to $173,550, the lawsuit says.
Despite receiving invoices and demand letters from the Venetian, Hall of Fame has failed to pay that amount, the lawsuit alleges.
A message seeking comment on the allegations was left Tuesday with Hall of Fame Chief Executive Bruce Bibbero.
In press releases on the Sports Legends Challenge Web site, the inaugural tournament was announced not for Las Vegas, but for Sept. 14-17 at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
For undisclosed reasons, the event this month didn’t happen.
Bibbero said in a press release the inaugural Sports Legends Challenge will be rescheduled for a new location and dates in 2010. The location and dates are being finalized, the Sept. 3 press release says.
The Web site indicates the event will involve entrants playing against sports legends and poker professionals.
Hall of Fame and Bibbero, in the meantime, remain engaged in litigation with Sludikoff Gaming Tournements Inc. of Las Vegas.
In lawsuits filed in Clark County District Court last year and this year, Sludikoff and Hall of Fame accused each other of wrongdoing when plans for a new celebrity poker tournament fell apart.
The litigation is pending, court records show.