Groupe Bernard Tapie has received a preliminary agreement with prosecutors to buy Full Tilt Poker for $80m.

Full Tilt

A lawyer for Groupe Bernard Tapie, Benham Dayanim, told the Associated Press on Friday that he received a signed letter of agreement on Thursday from the US attorney's office in New York that could broker Full Tilt Poker's sale.

According to Dayanim, the next steps will be for Full Tilt to agree, then for the Tapie group to negotiate a final agreement with the Department of Justice.

Jeff Ifrah, a lawyer for Full Tilt CEO Raymond Bitar, said the letter of agreement helps pave the way toward restarting Full Tilt's operations outside the US and paying back players.

The Tapie group would pay players outside the US, while Americans who gambled at the site would send claims to the DoJ. Current investors with stakes in Full Tilt would reportedly not be allowed to have a stake in the new company.

Dayanim said he was optimistic about the deal because it offers the best chance of players being paid back and restarting the site as a European-facing poker site.

Alderney Gambling Control Commissioners revoked Full Tilt's licence at a tribunal in September when it emerged that the company had fundamentally misled the AGCC about its operational integrity.