Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 2432
It's been reported by Pokerfuse that the Ongame Network has finally been sold, but at a fraction of the price bwin.party initially wanted for it.
Amaya Gaming Group Inc., a Montreal-based company, are expected to pay in the region of $6.5 million - $8 million to take charge of the poker platform.
Despite being the fifth largest network in the industry and having licenses to operate legally in France and Italy, bwin.party has struggled to offload the surplus asset.
Multiple companies, including Zynga and Shuffle Master, pulled out of deals at the last minute.
Indeed, the latter was prepared to offer $30 million; however, it now looks as though Amaya will take control of the Network for less than 1/3rd of that price.
It's not yet known what Amaya plans to do with the network, but all bwin players will now be transferred to PartyPoker's platform before the sale.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Not happy about this. I play at bwin and I hate party poker, I don't want to play there. I heard they were merging some time ago but I was hoping they would keep the ongame network cos it has way better tournaments, less rake and a better prize structure. But I suppose poker is the party speciality in this relationship. It was obvious this would happen.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Croatia
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1738
What the hell is going on with the online poker market? everyone is selling, merging, regrouping, bankrupting... I was thinking on going back to bwin mainly coz they have a nice freeroll but now i ill just wait to see what happens. Seems to me that this business is on a downward spiral losing more and more credibility and the trust of online players as time passes.
Joined: Dec '10
Location: Finland
Age: 31 (M)
Posts: 429
sad newss! I also liked the bwinpoker and I was planing to make a new deposit with my friend and get the invitation bonus aswell...I guess ill have to forget about the pokerbonus and stick to sports betting there..
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
Its the natural course according to what is happening with the economy globally, and with what all the governments want to do. Its shrinking in size from a poker sites point of view and from what it seems in player numbers too
Joined: Sep '12
Location: Romania
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 1052
What will happen with the money from bettingbwin , bwin points from betting and other? I can bet on PartyPoker? I already PartyPoker account, there will be no problem hope :-s because I don't want to lose my money, I wonder when it will occur Zynga poker for real money, because there are many fish and some coins would not hurt anyone extra: D
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
Bwin has teamed up with party, so they are not in that deal. What was sold was the rest of the Ongame Network. Mostly the poker arms of smaller betting or casino companies.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Croatia
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1738
Posted by shokaku: Bwin has teamed up with party, so they are not in that deal. What was sold was the rest of the Ongame Network. Mostly the poker arms of smaller betting or casino companies.
So everyone else will go to partypoker and bwin will keep the Ongame platform software? Seems a bit strange. So what is bwin taking out of all of this? I'll wait for some time more before i commit myself there with a deposit, wouldn't want to be stuck with party again... once in a lifetime is enough lol
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
well the thing that is wron i see here is that bwin.party chose for their clients without asking them. so they are risking big- if their client won't like the switch to party poker, and i must admit atm it's kind of low end room imho, they will lose lots of customers- then again party poker is planning a new version- this might change something
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
I guess bwin.party will use the Party Poker software. That one isn't that bad any more, but the Ongame Poker software is still one of the worsed on the market. And they don't have any genuine casino software.
is this true?anyway i play at betfair which is ongame network.I hope that changes are not much because i like the way betfair...any change is good if its for the better....
There is just too many platmorms and different rooms at the moment on the market so that is why there is so much selling, merging etc. etc. Only the strongest (largest) will survive. I disliked bwin room and haven't played there for a long time but i like party poker and i think players wont be dissapointed with the switch. I disagree that bwin is/was better than party poker. If you play/deposit on party you get a LOT of bonuses and free cash so even tho rake is bigger you can get more from it when you play good.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 2432
bwin.Party announced that the Ongame network has been sold to Amaya Gaming, Inc. The purchase has been completed for €25 million, with €15 million to be paid before the end of 2012 and an up to an additional €10 million to be paid if online gaming is regulated in the US within five years.
"The sale of Ongame conforms to our strategy, especially as we move closer to launching our single, proprietary technology platform in the next few months," said bwin.Party Co-CEOs Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger. "We believe Ongame will fit well into Amaya Gaming and has an excellent future ahead."
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
This looks like some of the deals between football clubs with players around Europe. Sometimes we hear about an offer to buy a certain player that is rejected by the club owner and then, months later, the club ends up selling the same player by a lower value, because at this time they can’t get a better offer. Was it the same in this poker network business? Or there was some kind of interest in selling it to a certain group, even if winning less money, than to another group?
