Online Poker Developer OnGame New Owner?
Published: Friday, December 09, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
IS ONLINE POKER DEVELOPER ONGAME ABOUT TO CHANGE OWNERSHIP?
Media reports suggest that negotiations with Austrian public company are in progress
Business media reports this week indicate that Austrian public company BetandWin, one of the largest betting groups in Europe has signed a memorandum of understanding with online poker developer Ongame in respect of takeover negotiations involving over GBP 350 million.
BetandWin has been conducting an intense marketing campaign for its several online gaming sites and has been looking for a vehicle like Ongame which is capable of giving it ready made entre into the US market, where the PokerRoom.com subsidiary has a powerful hold.
Ongame was recently accepted as a member of the eCOGRA independent standards authority.
Matthew Gerard, an Investec analyst at Investec, says that if carrtied through the takeover could present some interesting branding changes as BetandWin markets its sports, casino and poker products under a single brand.
Earlier reports were that Ongame had been planning a 2006 initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange, and it is not known how this will be affected if a deal is closed.
BetandWin is a successful group, with third quarter results published in November showing profits of Euro 1.3 million compared to a loss of Euro 930,000 for the same period the year before, the result of marketing spend that tripled to over Euro 32 million for the period. BetandWin’s share price has risen more than 400 percent to date this year.
