A major shakeup at online site WPT Global has resulted in dozens of employees being abruptly terminated as a new CEO has reportedly taken over the company's operational reins. The mass firings, which one of the terminated employees pegged at about 60 in number, occurred not only within WPT Global but also within the WPT family's tech and security concern, A5 Labs."
No specific reason for the overhaul appears to have been given to the discharged employees, though the overhaul was alleged by the terminated worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, to be connected to the new China-based CEO taking over and wishing to install his own management and employee team.
The mass firings were allegedly the third such wave of discharges to occur over the last three months, though the first two bulk firings were much smaller, at perhaps 10 employees each. This latest wave was much larger, and though it had been rumored internally for some time, it was accompanied by zero advance notice. The dozens of employees learned that something was up only when they attempted to begin work on Tuesday and discovered that their access to their respective Slack group's workplace channels had been revoked.
"People all throughout are pointing fingers at each other, issuing blame," the former worker said. "A clusterf*** today."
WPT Global has not issued any statement regarding a new CEO having been installed, and his true identity remains a mystery to the rank-and-file employees. He was referred to as 'Oscar' in internal communications, the fired worker detailed. Oscar's new right-hand man, even more oddly, was allegedly known only as '7' to the workers.
'Company-wide reorganization'
PokerOrg has obtained the termination letter sent to one discharged employee of A5 Labs, which refers to the mass discharge as a "company-wide reorganization." The letter declares that the employees' official date of termination will be Thursday, December 5, and that secondary benefits will remain intact through the end of the month.
The letter seen by PokerOrg thanks employees for their efforts and assigns no blame. "Our leadership team worked diligently to explore various options before reaching this point, but ultimately, they concluded that these changes are necessary for the future direction of the company," the letter states. "Please know that this decision does not reflect your performance but rather the strategic needs and priorities of the company at this time."
To what extent the discharged employees' country of residence factored into the mass discharge is unclear. The anonymous source declared, based on his own collected information, that the mass firings were almost exclusively of US-based staff. In the case of WPT Global, there's a certain logic to that, since the site does not allow American players.
ClubWPT Gold not affected
What's true for WPT Global, however, is much less so for other entities such as A5 Labs. As a tech-oriented division with no direct-to-user relationship, A5 Labs and its workers could be based anywhere.
The new ClubWPT Gold sweepstakes site is under separate ownership and is not part of this situation. However, ClubWPT Gold still faces its own difficulties, including an increasingly cloudy legal future. The entire sweeps-based industry is increasingly coming under attack, both from entrenched American casino entities and from a growing wave of user lawsuits. Many of those lawsuits have targeted the sweeps industry's largest company, Virtual Gaming Worlds (VGW), the parent company of Global Poker. VGW has already pulled its sites from several US states, as ClubWPT Gold has also begun to do in its own terms and conditions published in advance of its initial launch.
The terminated employee claimed that the ClubWPT Gold site crashed during the first day of freerolls, with the timing of it being unfortunate as final preparations are being made for the massive $5 million freeroll later this month. The freeroll, being offered through ClubWPT Gold, has generated huge player interest.
PokerOrg reached out to WPT Global, who declined to offer official comment.
