Bwin.party sells Ongame to Amaya for up to 25m
Initial sum of 15m will increase depending on regulatory progress in the United States.
Bwin.party has announced it has agreed to sell B2B poker network Ongame to Amaya Gaming Group for a total cash consideration of up to 25m.
The deal follows months of speculation as to who would acquire the network after casino game supplier Shuffle Master pulled out of an agreed 19.5m deal in June.
At the time Shuffle Master cited Ongame’s recent performance, along with difficult economic conditions in Europe, for making the deal no longer financially viable.
Amaya will initially pay 15m for Ongame, a sum which will increase if there is widespread online gambling regulation in the United States within the next five years. The transaction is expected to complete during Q4 of 2012.
News of Amaya’s bid arose last month, with a source telling eGR that negotiations had been on-going for more than two months.
The service provider had entered into an exclusive preferred bidder position with Ongame’s owner bwin.party, which has been looking for a buyer since the spring of last year when it publicly deemed it a “surplus asset” following the merger of Bwin and PartyGaming.
Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger (pictured), the co-CEOs of bwin.party, said of today’s deal: “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.”
David Baazov, CEO of Amaya Gaming, added: “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.”