Online gambling firm Betfair Group plc announced this week that it will be moving its online poker room from the Ongame Network to Playtech’s iPoker Network. Playtech said in a statement that Betfair will come onboard later this month and will transition to an exclusive arrangement in July.
Betfair is making the move primarily because its poker room has been struggling. In last month’s interim results, the company reported an 11 percent decrease in net gaming revenues and a drop from 93,000 active players in the same period last year to 85,000 this year.
With its new focus on regulated markets, Betfair said during the interim results that jumping onto the iPoker Network would give it “the flexibility to choose the best network for its customers on a country-by-country basis.”
Poker makes up just a small portion of Betfair’s net gaming revenues: £9.6 million in the first half of the year compared to £29.4 from casino gaming and £140.2 million for sports betting.
Said Betfair’s Director of Gaming Sam Hobcraft of the move:
Our intention has always been to offer our customers a rewarding and varied poker experience. Launching “New Betfair Poker” on Playtech’s platform will help us to continue to achieve this goal. It’s a world-class product, offering unique and innovative features. This coupled with Betfair Poker’s renowned community and loyalty offerings will help us better retain our existing player base and attract a new audience to Betfair poker.
According to the Financial Times, Daniel Stewart analyst Michael Campbell estimates that the deal will be worth €2 million to €3 million to Playtech and €2 million in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).
With bwin.com making the switch from the Ongame Network to the PartyPoker network, Ongame has fallen from the ranks of the top ten poker networks (in terms of cash game traffic, according to PokerScout.com) to fourteenth. Its seven-day average of 1,020 cash game players puts it behind the likes of Bodog, Revolution Gaming, and MPN. In the meantime, Playtech’s iPoker Network is a solid fourth with a seven-day average of 2,900 cash game players. Thus, Betfair’s new home will provide much-needed liquidity to its tables which will hopefully, in turn, attract new customers that will sign-up specifically on Betfair’s website or bring over Betfair sports bettors to its poker tables.
“We’re delighted to announce Betfair’s migration to iPoker.com,” said iPoker boss Roei Gavish. “Our network continues to see positive development from both a liquidity and technological standpoint, which not only benefits a large operator like Betfair but also secures Playtech’s leadership in the Poker B2B market.”
iPoker had been in a heated competition with PartyPoker for the number two spot in PokerScout’s rankings behind PokerStars, but Full Tilt Poker’s recent revival plus the addition of bwin to PartyPoker’s network has pushed it down to fourth. The addition of Betfair is unlikely to boost iPoker enough to pass PartyPoker, as the current difference between the two networks is 800 cash game players, not an insignificant number.