This week, Entraction officials announced plans to shutter CardRoom2, which makes its home on Boss Media’s International Poker Network. Entraction Network sites include Devilfish Poker and NoiQ Poker.
The room will be closed no later than the end of the 2009 calendar year. A statement released by Entraction noted, “Entraction has decided to close Cardroom2, [which] enables players in Entraction’s network to play on the [International Poker Network]. The traffic between the networks is not extensive and Cardroom2 only represents approximately 5% of Entraction’s revenues from poker.” Entraction had already terminated its agreement with Boss Media.
According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, the International Poker Network is the ninth largest worldwide with a seven-day running average of 1,860 real money ring game players. During its peak hours, nearly 3,700 can be found battling it out on the felts of the Boss Media property. At the time of writing, which is late afternoon throughout Europe, 3,100 players are seated at its cash game tables. The International Poker Network’s family of sites, which is now devoid of CardRoom2, includes BetClick, Extreme Poker, InterPoker, Paradise Poker, and Total Poker.
The Entraction Network is comparatively smaller, registering as the 11th largest worldwide with a seven-day running average of 1,320 real money ring game players. Besides Devilfish Poker and NoiQ Poker, other Entraction Network sites include 24h Poker and i4Poker, which also offers an International Poker Network option.
Peter Åström, CEO Entraction, commented in a press release distributed by the company this week that Entraction Network’s popularity led to the decision to close CardRoom2: ”Cardroom2 has been a good possibility for players to play in two different networks using one account. Because of the strong growth in the Entraction poker network, there is no longer a need for Cardroom2.” Neither the Entraction Network nor International Poker Network allows players from the United States.
Last month, Entraction officials announced that the network was adding Live Casino games to its offering. Evolution Gaming brought Live Casino games to life and the partnership meant that baccarat, blackjack, and roulette would make their debut on the Entraction Network in the spring of 2010. On the company’s business-to-business agreement with Evolution Gaming, Åström commented, “We see strong growth in casino and Live Casino completes our strong casino offering. Our approach to always put the partner first alongside our complete portfolio of products and services for online gaming makes us an attractive partner for established gaming operators, media companies, and other companies with strong brands that want to offer their customers online games.”
On November 5th, Entraction will reveal its financial results for the third quarter of 2009. Its stock is listed on the NASDAQ OMX First North Premier exchange and, at the time of writing, was trading at $57.25, down $0.75 on the day, or 1.29%. Its stock price jumped to nearly $60 on word that CardRoom2 would be closed. The company itself is based in Stockholm and was founded in 2000.
Devilfish Poker is home to the bad boy of poker himself, David “Devilfish” Ulliott. The poker pro took down the World Poker Open during Season I of the World Poker Tour (WPT) for $589,000. Five seasons later, he grabbed third in the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio for $674,000. He participated in the WPT’s Bad Boys of Poker during Season II and won a $2,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em event during the 1997 WSOP for his first (and so far only) bracelet. That event saw Ulliott outlast Poker Hall of Fame nominee Tom McEvoy, Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson, Paul “Eskimo” Clark, and Stan Goldstein at the final table.