Betsafe players now have a choice of poker rooms with the new addition of “Poker Black,” a skin on the Microgaming Network. The new room operates alongside the existing Ongame skin, now dubbed “Poker Red.”
Both choices offer similar promotions: “Red” has a $2500 signup bonus and up to 40% cashback, and the new “Black” has €1000 and up to 30% cashback. Microgaming has a little over half the number of daily cash game players as Ongame. Both sites have similar geographical restrictions and game offerings, although Microgaming does boast a fast-fold poker client, Blaze.
Ongame owner bwin.party has been trying to sell the network for some time. The uncertainty about future ownership may have prompted Betsafe to hedge their bets.
Swedish company Betsson is the owner of Betsafe and itself operates a dual poker room: One on Ongame and the other on Entraction. Offering two or more poker rooms is fairly common among European online gaming operators; Entraction/IGT and Boss Media is one common partnership.
It is not the first time the group has looked to expand its poker offerings beyond Ongame. Betsson was one of the first to offer “Fast Poker,” a network of fast fold-only poker games, and betsafe joined a month later. However, with the introduction of Poker Black and Microgaming’s “Blaze,” the offering has been demoted to a small sub-menu on the Betsafe webpage.
