A later-revealed-as-fake listing on MergerNetworksaid that Phil Ivey’s (pictured) training site, Ivey League, was seeking at least $20 million in “seed capital” to elevate the site to the next level. The phony listing said Ivey League will “build out Ivey’s personal brand to reach a larger audience as well as support his efforts in poker and training, with an emphasis on international growth… Expand platform to include fantasy sports and sweepstakes to cross-pollinate user base, increasing traffic and revenue.”

After our original article on the topic was published, Ivey League reps told Pokerfuse, ““We are expanding the business into multiple categories but we’re not selling the business and [Phil] Ivey has self-funded the mid-seven-figures [put] into the company over the years.” Guess that ends that drama.

In October, Ivey’s free-to-play Facebook app, Ivey Poker, suspended operations, reportedly until sometime this year.

A fake business plan on MergerNetwork, which has since been taken down at the request of Ivey League, mentioned yet-to-be-launched sports book and fantasy sports products and, overall, said the “brand will elicit that feeling of either betting with or against Ivey, providing a valuable marketing tool.”

Year 1 projections, with numbers apparently pulled out of thin air, for several facets of the business were listed on MergerNetwork:

Ivey Sports Book:
$12 million gross revenue
$1.2 million gross margin
The documentation said these figures were based on approximately $1.5 billion in betting action resulting in gross cash flow of 10%. It added that Bet365 pulled in $350 million in revenue in a single fiscal year.

Fantasy Sports:
$8.5 million gross revenue
$850,000 gross margin
The documentation noted that two vendors are in place.

Ivey Live Training:
$2 million gross revenue
$1 million gross margin

UK Bingo:
$3.7 million gross revenue
$373,000 gross margin

Online Casino:
$2.8 million gross revenue
$280,000 gross margin

All told, according to the fake listing, Ivey’s brand believed it could pull in $25 million to $50 million per year in sales and record profits between $10 million and $25 million. The asking price for an investor was “over $20 million” for what appears to be an undetermined percentage of the business.

Why someone would put up the listing using very specific numbers and estimates remains to be seen.

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