Party Poker and Ongame Merging

[lkport]

The parent company of Party Poker, Party Gaming is merging with Bwin. Bwin is the parent company of the Ongame network. While most of you know who Party Poker is, the Ongame network includes sites like Bwin Poker, Betfair Poker, Hollywood Poker, and RedKings Poker. Poker Scout ranks Party Poker as the number three poker room in player size and volume globally. The Ongame Network weighs in at fifth. The word is the new merged company will probably sport a new name, but it is doubtful that any poker sites will be changing.

Reports call the merger a buyout of Bwin by Party Gaming yet Bwin will somehow have controlling interest of over 51%. I see the words "reverse takeover" bandied about but that is for financial types. To put the merger in perspective, if Ongame and Party Poker started being listed together on Poker Scout, they still would be a distant third to Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker.

Many view the merger as positioning to be ready when the US market opens up to regulated online poker some time in the distant future. With all the talk in committee hearings of excluding operators who have taken US players in the past, this may be the strategy. As far as we know, Bwin has never been in the US market, while Party Poker was one of the first big poker sites catering to US players before their abrupt departure in 2006.

From a player standpoint, there should not be any unrest or uncertainty regarding the merger. I am not an insider on this deal, but I doubt anything outward, player-facing will change on any of the sites involved.

[Kountess]

Thanks for posting this. So their merging basically because the markets going to go in on them? Just a little confused on that part.

[sneaker]

Ongame ain;t so bad i'm curently playing in betfair which go from independent to ongame network before 2-3 days.Only sad thing is that HEM don't work there for the moment.I think it's not open for the USA market.I have no idea if it will..hope to open..more players more fun..

[UnknownFlush]

Yeah Party Poker was quite popular in US market before, well I don't mind they bringing in those US player ^^

[buzzmania]

partypoker was the first site i ever played on and i actually still have it downloaded .I hope it comes back to the us and i would be willing to give any new sites a chance,maybe..

[Fonzi]

Originally Posted by buzzmania

partypoker was the first site i ever played on and i actually still have it downloaded .I hope it comes back to the us and i would be willing to give any new sites a chance,maybe..

you may not have a choice. Let's see how things play out, but right now they want to lock out sites like FTP and Pokerstars

[xaviersgrpa]

i would go back to Party Poker always did real good there
but i would hate it if they blocked full tilt and Pokerstars

[Fonzi]

Originally Posted by xaviersgrpa

i would go back to Party Poker always did real good there
but i would hate it if they blocked full tilt and Pokerstars

Yeah, I'm not sure they can block them, but they can certainly put them at the back of the list for licenses.

[sup_mario]

Thanks for sharing this info man.