FINANCE NEWS
SHUFFLE MASTER AGREES €19.5M ONGAME DEAL
Poker network described as a “surplus asset” by previous owner bwin.party
Land-based gaming supplier Shuffle Master has made its ?rst move into the online poker market with the €19.5m (£16.2m) acquisition of the Ongame network from bwin.party. The cost may be subject to increase if the US market opens in the next ?ve years, with Shuffle Master set to pay “up to €10m in cash within ?ve years of closing”, contingent upon the commencement of legalised, real-money online poker in the US in that period. Shuffle Master stated: “The €10m contingent payment decreases through the ?ve-year period.” Despite having the ?fth-largest cash game liquidity of all poker rooms and networks worldwide, Ongame was written off as a “surplus asset” by the operator's managenement in anticipation of the completion of bwin’s merger with PartyGaming in March 2011. Among the operators with poker offerings on the Ongame network are Sportingbet, Betsson and Betfair, while bwin’s offering, currently one of the larger skins on the network, is expected to join the PartyPoker network during 2012. out of the US market following UIGEA. It marks the second time in less than 12 months that a US land-based supplier has acquired an active European-facing network, following IGT’s acquisition and subsequent rebranding of Entraction, now known as the IGT poker network. Shuffle Master chief executive Gavin Isaacs said: “Poker is a natural ?t for our table-centric online offerings and our many jurisdictional licenses present a compelling opportunity for our current and future online customers.” The company is one of more than 20 applicants for Nevada egaming licences, applying for a service provider licence in the Silver State. In its ?rst-quarter results it recorded a year-on-year revenue increase of 28% to US$56.1m (£35.5m), boosted by electronic gaming machines. Ongame, meanwhile, already operates in the regulated Italian and French markets, while it launched a Danish-facing poker room at the start of this year and has applied for a Spanish licence. Lou Castle, chief strategy officer for Shuffle Master, noted that the deal “will permit us to begin immediately offering state-of-the-art B2B online products following the closing of the acquisition”. Ongame’s managing director Peter Bertilsson said: “We believe that our experience and expertise in the European market is a natural ?t with Shuffle Master’s commitment and history in developing innovative products.” Bwin.party had ?rst indicated that the Ongame network was likely to be sold in February last year, before con?rming these plans four months later. In that June 2011 statement the operator claimed “any sale will be completed by the end of the year” but the plans fell behind schedule. The acquisition remains subject to regulatory approvals, but is expected to close within nine months.
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Intralot’s Dutch subsidiary Intralot Nederland launched
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Mexico’s largest land-based gambling operator Grupo Caliente signed a deal with Playtech seeing the company launch the provider’s products on its egaming site.
Poker is a natural ?t for our table-centric online offerings
Bwin.party co-chief executive Jim Ryan had previously made clear the operator’s plans to bring together player bases from its bwin and PartyGaming brands by the middle of this year, and said in a statement: “The sale of Ongame represents a further step in our process of integrating bwin and PartyGaming and moving to a single technology platform.” The sale sees the network’s value dip by more than 95% from the £474m paid by bwin in 2005, before it was forced to pull
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