Entraction bid could influence Ongame future
bwin.party co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger says IGT's £70m bid for Entraction could determine whether or not the Ongame network is sold.
bwin.party has said IGT’s £70m bid for dot.com poker network Entraction could influence its decision over whether it will sell or retain its Ongame poker network in the “coming weeks and months”.
In response to a question in this morning’s first-quarter analyst call on whether or not casino supplier IGT’s bid for Entraction would change the competitive poker market outside the US, bwin.party co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger said: “I would not say changes it. It obviously changes to a certain extent and influences our decision as to what we will do with our asset of Ongame, because obviously Entraction is a company which was not well known. They have achieved a great price of 75 to 78m.
“It also shows and indicates to us that the large US players obviously have a view that regulation is coming very soon. So, it may have an impact on the strategic decision which we may take in the next few weeks or months on Ongame, but in principle, I think it’s rather positive.”
Earlier this year a bwin spokesman told eGaming Review that Ongame was likely to amount to “surplus assets” and would either be sold in full or offered to strategic partners to take a stake once the two companies came together. A bwin.party spokesman confirmed today that there had been “no decision” on the future of the network but that a “new contract win” for Ongame would soon be announced.
When prompted on whether he saw Entraction becoming a stronger competitor with the backing of IGT “ which finalised a sale of land-based Barcrest group to Scientific Games ahead of lodging a bid for Swedish online poker business Entraction “ Teufelberger added: “It’s maybe a bit unfair to charge the quality of their systems, what I’ve heard and what I’ve known, their poker system is not known to be great. This is only me speaking. Some other people may have a different opinion. But what I’ve heard in the market and from what I’ve heard from our people, especially the poker system Entraction has, it is not up to standards.”
When contacted by eGaming Review regarding Teufelberger’s comments, Entraction chief executive Peter à ström said: “We focus on our own business instead of criticising our competitors.”
Teufelberger was speaking after bwin.party’s KPI results presentation revealed the newly merged group’s poker revenues were down 14% year-on-year to 54m, from a combined pre-merger total for Bwin and PartyGaming of 62.8m, due to competitive pressure from US-facing operators PokerStars and FullTilt leveraging this liquidity into Europe, said the group.
Current trading had however seen a 33% pick-up in poker player sign-ups in the two weeks following the DoJ’s action against three US-facing sites last month, compared to the previous two weeks, “but it is too early to fully assess likely impact”, said the group.
First-quarter net revenue for the group was 2% up year-on-year to 217.8m, from a combined total in the comparable quarter last year of 213.9m. Sports betting revenue was up 11% to 71.6m, while bingo revenue remained flat at 18.3m. Casino and other games revenue was up 8% year-on-year to 64.8m, from 60.2m.