New Buyer Found for Ongame Poker Network
Under the terms of a new deal, Canadian group Amaya Gaming will pay an initial €15m in cash for Bwin.party’s Ongame poker network.
Under the terms of a new deal, Canadian group Amaya Gaming will pay an initial €15m in cash for Bwin.party’s Ongame poker network.
Amaya may pay a further €10m if progress is made in the US on regulating online gambling.
Earlier this year a similar deal was struck with ShuffleMaster for an initial €19.5m and a potential further €10m. However, the deal fell apart after ShuffleMaster grew nervous about the slow progress in the US on regulation and the market conditions in Europe.
Ongame used to be the third biggest online poker site, behind Party Poker and PokerStars.
Bwin purchased Ongame from its Swedish creaters for €473m in 2005, however, it became unnecessary after Bwin and PartyGaming merged last year.
The Ongame network offers regulated poker in France and Italy and includes poker rooms for Betfair, Coral and others. In the second half of last year it had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of €0.04m.
The joint Chief Executives of Bwin.part, Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger, said: “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.”
