Ongame Poker Network Acquisition Confirmed, Details Revealed

The speculations about the acquisition and the price of Bwin’s Ongame Poker Network&s sale to Montreal-based Amaya Gaming have been settled at the very beginning of the week with a Bwin company statement.

Namely, the original rumor that Amaya would be paying only $6.5 to $8 million turned out to be unrealistic, as the company specified that the asking price was actually at $25 million – much more in line with the Shuffle Master offer that the company reversed away from in June.

According to the Bwin statement, Amaya is to pay an initial consideration of Euro 15 million in cash on completion, which should arrive during the fourth quarter of 2012 and is pending regulatory approvals. Also, additional payments of up to Euro 10 million will become payable if online gambling becomes regulated in the United States within the next five years.

According to Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger, the Co-CEOs of bwin.party, “The sale of Ongame conforms to our strategy, especially as we move closer to launching our single, proprietary technology platform in the next few months. We believe Ongame will fit well into Amaya Gaming and has an excellent future ahead.”

On the other side, David Baazov, Chief Executive Officer of Amaya Gaming, said: “The acquisition of Ongame bolsters Amaya Gaming&s product portfolio, transforming Amaya into a leading provider of gaming platforms. Amaya looks forward to unleashing Ongame&s technology to its full potential through the leveraging of our many B2B relationships and delivering new partners and players to the network. The Ongame platform is scalable, proven and secure and is well suited for quick deployment in new regulated markets. We&re excited about the wide range of opportunities this acquisition makes possible for us as we execute on our vision.”

There are 25 brands in the Ongame network that are owned by a total of 19 operators.