On Thursday, bwin.party announced the successful conclusion of the Ongame sale to Amaya Gaming, an entertainment solutions provider based in Montreal.
Amaya’s interest in the network was first revealed back in September, and both parties confirmed the sale one month ago.
Amaya has paid €15m for the Ongame poker network, which is currently fifth in cash game traffic among dot.com rooms and maintains networks in Italy, France and newly launched Spain.
It has also committed to pay up to an additional €10m over the course of the next five years, contingent on the regulation of online poker in the US.
Today’s announcement will be welcome news to PartyGaming execs, the team at Ongame and its loyal players, as the protracted sale and previous breakdowns in negotiation caused concern over the network’s future.
bwin.party first announced it was up for sale way back in July 2011. From January 2012 Shuffle Master was known to be in advanced talks, entered a definitive agreement in March, only to withdraw two months later.
During these transitional months, there has been little development in its software platform. It is one of the few remaining networks not to have a fast fold poker product, and its mobile platform remains under-developed.
Despite this, the network has actually outperformed many of its direct competitors in terms of cash game traffic. It appears to be down approximately 20% over the last six months, compared to 33% and 35% at iPoker and PartyPoker, respectively, according to the latest data from PokerScout.
Amaya’s plans for the network are unknown.
