In our article we will look at the Bwin.party/888 Holdings/GVC-Amaya bidding war, the iPoker network merge and the acquisition of Skrill by Optimal Payments.
Bidding war over bwin.party
The bidding war over the acquisition of bwin.party has been one of the biggest stories of the summer in the online gambling industry.
The whole thing started back in March when a bwin.party executive confirmed that they have advanced to the ''next level'' in negotiations with several companies regarding the sale of the company.
Amaya, Ladbrokes, Playtech and William Hill were rumored to be the interested parties, but in May, 888 Holdings, the company behind 888poker has announced that they are also looking to buy the company.
Amaya, together with GVC Holdings eventually made an offer of €1,5 billion, but bwin.party announced that they have accepted the £898,3 million offer made by 888 Holdings.
However, since the deal has not been finalized yet, GVC came in with another offer, this time for £906,500,000 and without Amaya Gaming.
photo: CalvinAyre
After the acquisition, GVC and Amaya wanted to split up the company (with the poker section going to Amaya) but this would have made the whole deal much more complicated, this is the most likely reason why GVC decided to make a standalone offer.
Even though the GVC offer is higher, bwin.party seems more interested to make a deal with 888 Holdings.
The bidding war is still raging and recently GVC has even threatened to walk away from the deal if bwin.party doesn't accept their offer soon.
It will be interesting to see how the tug of war for bwin.party will end up (maybe 888 Holdings will jump in with an even higher offer?), many industry experts expect the deal to be finalized by the end of September.
iPoker merges premium and secondary networks
Back in September 2012, the iPoker network decided to split its player pool into two, with the rooms being put in either the premium or secondary network based on several factors, including the number of new depositing players in a given room, the ''regular-recreational player'' ratio and more.
In January the network announced their new rake calculation system, called Source Based Rake (SBR) and many players predicted that this will result in the merger of the rooms of the premium and secondary networks, since iPoker no longer needs to rate the rooms based on the factors we mentioned above. (The SBR system tracks the rake generated by players and distributes it between the skins based on where the rake ''started its journey''.)
Recently, the network has confirmed the predictions and announced the merger which was put into action from August 11, every player will now reach the same cash game and SNG tables regardless of which room they play in.
As you know, most of our exclusive cash races run in the iPoker network and we believe that the merger will have a positive impact with increased traffic. Check out our Weekly Race Review articles to find the best iPoker room for you!
Neteller parent company buys Skrill
If you like to deposit and withdraw your bankroll quickly and without fees, your best option in most online poker rooms is to use Neteller and Skrill.
In March, Optimal Payments Plc, the parent company behind Neteller has announced that they have come to an agreement with Sentinel Topco Limited, the owners of Skrill about the purchase of the company.
Optimal Payments will pay €1,1 billion for Skrill and will finance the deal from outside sources (since Skrill is the bigger one of the two companies).
The deal was recently approved by the shareholders as well as the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and was finalized on August 10.
Skrill started in 2001 as Moneybookers and grew to be one of the biggest online wallet companies in the world and is mostly involved in the online gambling business.
With the deal, Skrill can make itself more diversified (according to Optimal Payments, the company was too dependent on the online gambling sector) and increase it's profits significantly.
Bidding war over bwin.party
The bidding war over the acquisition of bwin.party has been one of the biggest stories of the summer in the online gambling industry.
The whole thing started back in March when a bwin.party executive confirmed that they have advanced to the ''next level'' in negotiations with several companies regarding the sale of the company.
Amaya, Ladbrokes, Playtech and William Hill were rumored to be the interested parties, but in May, 888 Holdings, the company behind 888poker has announced that they are also looking to buy the company.
Amaya, together with GVC Holdings eventually made an offer of €1,5 billion, but bwin.party announced that they have accepted the £898,3 million offer made by 888 Holdings.
However, since the deal has not been finalized yet, GVC came in with another offer, this time for £906,500,000 and without Amaya Gaming.
photo: CalvinAyre
After the acquisition, GVC and Amaya wanted to split up the company (with the poker section going to Amaya) but this would have made the whole deal much more complicated, this is the most likely reason why GVC decided to make a standalone offer.
Even though the GVC offer is higher, bwin.party seems more interested to make a deal with 888 Holdings.
The bidding war is still raging and recently GVC has even threatened to walk away from the deal if bwin.party doesn't accept their offer soon.
It will be interesting to see how the tug of war for bwin.party will end up (maybe 888 Holdings will jump in with an even higher offer?), many industry experts expect the deal to be finalized by the end of September.
iPoker merges premium and secondary networks
Back in September 2012, the iPoker network decided to split its player pool into two, with the rooms being put in either the premium or secondary network based on several factors, including the number of new depositing players in a given room, the ''regular-recreational player'' ratio and more.
In January the network announced their new rake calculation system, called Source Based Rake (SBR) and many players predicted that this will result in the merger of the rooms of the premium and secondary networks, since iPoker no longer needs to rate the rooms based on the factors we mentioned above. (The SBR system tracks the rake generated by players and distributes it between the skins based on where the rake ''started its journey''.)
Recently, the network has confirmed the predictions and announced the merger which was put into action from August 11, every player will now reach the same cash game and SNG tables regardless of which room they play in.
As you know, most of our exclusive cash races run in the iPoker network and we believe that the merger will have a positive impact with increased traffic. Check out our Weekly Race Review articles to find the best iPoker room for you!
Neteller parent company buys Skrill
If you like to deposit and withdraw your bankroll quickly and without fees, your best option in most online poker rooms is to use Neteller and Skrill.
In March, Optimal Payments Plc, the parent company behind Neteller has announced that they have come to an agreement with Sentinel Topco Limited, the owners of Skrill about the purchase of the company.
Optimal Payments will pay €1,1 billion for Skrill and will finance the deal from outside sources (since Skrill is the bigger one of the two companies).
The deal was recently approved by the shareholders as well as the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and was finalized on August 10.
Skrill started in 2001 as Moneybookers and grew to be one of the biggest online wallet companies in the world and is mostly involved in the online gambling business.
With the deal, Skrill can make itself more diversified (according to Optimal Payments, the company was too dependent on the online gambling sector) and increase it's profits significantly.
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