Unibet in France will leave the Ongame network for iPoker within the next two weeks, unofficial sources have informed pokerfuse.
The decision comes not long after the sale of Ongame to Amaya, and just weeks after Everest also made the move from its independent platform onto iPoker.FR.
The move signifies the further strengthening of Playtech’s position in the French regulated market.
Unibet’s primary player pool is on the Microgaming network. The company has been expanding rapidly under its CEO Henrik Tjärnström, buying Australian Betchoice Corporation and French company Solfive Group. It also bought Bet24, previously an Ongame skin, and merged players onto its own platform.
French company Betclic Everest recently closed its proprietary software and moved to Playtech’s iPoker network. iPoker France, previously dormant, instantly increased its share of the French market by 2000% and moved into third position behind Winamax and PokerStars. Both French Unibet and Everest players should therefore benefit from higher levels of liquidity when the move is completed.
The only other skin known to be on Ongame France is bwin.fr, which will also transition over to PartyPoker by year’s end. Once moved, it will likely mean the end to Ongame’s presence in France.
But the network is developing in its own direction. Amaya recently signed a deal with Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino to bring its newly acquired poker tech to fuel a play-money site, with eyes on real-money play when regulation permits.
Unibet was not available to comment.
