Bwin.party finalises Ongame sale
Amaya Gaming has paid the operator 15m, with a further 10m to be paid in the event of a regulated US egaming market opening within five years.
Bwin.party has confirmed that the sale of B2B poker network Ongame to Amaya Gaming has been completed.
The Canadian software provider has paid an initial consideration of 15m, while a further 10m will be due “If there is regulated online gaming in the United States within five years of completion.”
Federal egaming regulation remains uncertain, with the latest regulatory proposals from Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl regarded by eGaming Review readers in a recent poll as having no chance of passing.
Bwin.party notes in a statement this morning: “The exact amount of the contingent consideration will depend upon the extent of the regulation and, if not federal, is based upon the number of states that regulate and the total population covered.”
At present Nevada (population 2.7m) is the only state to have begun issuing licences, while varying levels of progress have been made in other jurisdictions such as Delaware and New Jersey over the last 24 months.
The completion of the Ongame sale comes one month after the deal was initially announced, and brings to a close a protracted process which began with the announcement in June last year that bwin.party – then a newly combined entity – would be looking to sell off the network as a “surplus asset” after the merger of PartyGaming and bwin in March 2011.
The intervening period saw Shuffle Master (since rebranded as SHFL Entertainment) agree an initial acquisition sum of 19.5m for the network in March this year before pulling out of the deal three months later, with chief executive Gavin Isaacs noting that: “Business conditions in Europe have deteriorated…and as a result, it has become evident to us that Ongame’s operations post-acquisition will not achieve the near-term results we initially expected and will require a larger ongoing investment than anticipated.”
Ongame holds the online poker offerings of operators such as Betsson, Betfair and bwin and ranks fifth for dot.com liquidity according to Pokerscout, however its liquidity is set to diminish when bwin.party completes the migration of bwin’s players to its proprietary PartyPoker platform.
Amaya’s acquisition of the network is the latest in a series of acquisitions over the last 18 months- after acquiring Chartwell and CryptoLogic last year, the company then agreed a US$167m deal for gaming machines supplier Cadillac Jack this September.