- The distinguished online poker room 32Red will close its doors tomorrow, May 19.
- PRO first revealed 32Red’s intention in an article last week, along with the plans of almost all other skins on the network.
- 32Red has a long history in the online poker industry, so its demise was far from assured.
- Maintaining this distinct brand would seem like a valuable asset, particularly given today’s climate.
- It will be for something of an unceremonious closure to a 17-year old veteran of the online poker industry.
Distinguished online poker room 32Red will close its doors tomorrow, May 19, when its network MPN goes offline.
Unlike a dozen other MPN skins, the site has opted not to transition to another network, nor even provide an automatic transition to parent company Kindred Group’s primary online poker product, Unibet.
PRO first revealed 32Red’s intention in an article last week, along with the plans of almost all other skins on the network. Soon after this article’s publication, 32Red contacted players to let them know if its plans to shutter.
“We regret to announce that 32Red Poker will be closing down on 19th May, when the Microgaming Poker Network closes,” a website statement reads.
Global online gaming giant Kindred Group acquired 32Red in early 2017, which immediately raised questions over the future of its poker vertical.
Kindred already runs a successful independent online poker room, Unibet Poker. Consolidating online poker under this single brand always seemed likely—it did exactly this with Stan James, another Kindred brand obtained through acquisition in 2015. It had an online poker skin on another online poker network, iPoker; this was ultimately closed, with players automatically migrated over to Unibet.
However, 32Red has a long history in the online poker industry, so its demise was far from assured. Its domain dates back 17 years, forming part of the 32Red casino offer since the company was founded. While never a core part of the business, the poker side-business has also had a team behind it. It has been involved in live stops in the past and has sponsored players at events.
