Late Thursday, it was revealed that Blanca Games had purchased the CEREUS Poker Network, which consists of UB.com and Absolute Poker. A press release is due out early next week from former owners Tokwiro Enterprises. The purchasing price and terms were not released.
Stuart Gordon is the Chief Executive Officer of the CEREUS Network’s new parent company and commented in a press release distributed on Thursday evening, “The acquisition of CEREUS is a significant opportunity for us. CEREUS is a major platform of well-managed assets. Over the past few years, it has created new brands, like UB.com, that are extremely well-positioned in the most desirable demographic in our market: players in the 20s and 30s age brackets.” UB.com and Absolute Poker both accept players from the United States.
Gordon added, “From our perspective, we have acquired a large, sophisticated online gaming operation with state-of-the art capabilities, ranging from compliance to business intelligence to online marketing to customer service. We see a tremendous growth opportunity in this deal and beyond, as Blanca seeks additional acquisitions in the market.” Gordon founded and manages BingoMania.com and Helix Gaming International. Like UB.com, both sites feature licenses from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, or KGC, and Stuart also owns licenses from the nation of Antigua.
Poker News Daily has independently confirmed that no staffing or operational changes are expected at UB.com or Absolute Poker with the transition to Blanca Gaming. In addition, Gordon commented that he doesn’t expect any changes to occur in the “playing experience” on either site. Blanca Games is based in Antigua and, according to its website, keeps offices in Costa Rica, where UB.com and Absolute Poker are based.
Gordon alluded to Blanca Games’ focus on security on the CEREUS Network going forward: “We intend to leverage the existing strengths of the CEREUS Poker Network, particularly in the areas of security and customer service. Although we are impressed with many of the new security features on the Network today, security is and will remain our top priority.” Both UB.com and Absolute Poker are fresh off high-profile superuser scandals. On the former site, over $20 million was taken from players in a heist featured on the CBS news program “60 Minutes.”
The CEREUS Network is in the midst of holding its fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC. It’s actually the second time that UBOC has run in 2010 and a $1 million guaranteed Main Event will play out on Sunday. The tournament, hosted by 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, boasts a $1,050 buy-in and kicks off at 16:00 ET. The UBOC 5 Main Event is the culmination of a 20-event tournament series that began back on August 18th.
The CEREUS Network’s team of pros includes Hellmuth, Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke, Tiffany Michelle, Trishelle Cannatella, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, and Brandon Cantu. No changes to rakeback, tournament schedules, and software were announced as of press time, but more details on the transaction and what it means for players may be given when Tokwiro issues its press release next week.
The CEREUS Network was officially launched in November 2008 after the player bases of Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker were combined. One year later, Ultimate Bet was re-branded as UB.com.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest on this breaking story.
