POKERROOM & ONGAME SOLD TO BWIN
| Date | December 2005 |
| Price | $570,000,0001 |
| Assets | PokerRoom.com & Ongame |
| Buyer |  |
| Status | bwin currently own and operate on ongame while pokerroom was merged bwin |
| Software | Yes |
| Success |  |
Bwin which in 2005 was called BetandWin made a smart move when it decided to buy the PokerRoom.com platform known as Ongame and move Bwin to this newly acquired network.
Bwin avoided paying royalties to Boss Media the software company behind IPN where Bwin till this date had been hosting its poker room. Bwin was able to make the software changes it found necessary meanwhile making a profit of its many competitors on the network.
The biggest value must have been avoiding paying royalties on its own players and being able to police its own network and apply the rules that would create the best conditions for Bwin to grow as a company.
You might be wondering why we did not mention the fact that Bwin acquired an million player strong database which you would imagine would boost its player base and value tremendously. Surely this would have been the case if it wasn't for UIGEA in 2006 less than one year after the purchase was finalized.
The UIGEA forced Bwin & Ongame to exclude Americans from its network and a huge amount of revenues was lost overnight.
In January 2009 Bwin announced it would close PokerRoom and EuroPoker and merge them with Bwin. PokerRoom was merged with Bwin but EuroPoker was eventually sold to a Swedish group of investors.
Due to the fact that PokerRoom.com was primarily a US poker room and a lot of the skins on the network was focusing on US players we must conclude that it can not be called a successful acquisition by bwin. In the summer of 2012 Bwin.party have failed many times to sell Ongame as a part of its strategy to moved bwin to the Party Poker network.
1 gamesandcasino.com 16 December, 2005