The Ongame online poker network has announced that internet gambling group Sportingbet, owner of ParadisePoker, will join its global poker network in the second half of this year.
The addition of Sportingbet will enhance player liquidity on the network and also bring the recreational players that Ongame is consciously targeting to maintain a healthy poker ecology and revenue growth, a statement from the company notes.
“Ongame has a great track record as a poker partner for major sportsbook brands”, said Ben Freeman, poker manager at Sportingbet, this week. “We are impressed by their approach to network ecology and we’re excited to widen our offering with increased liquidity and better promotions to our players.”
Ongame’s network includes poker brands owned by Betfair, bwin, Betsson, Unibet, PAF, EuroSport, Bet24 and Gioco Digitale as well as twenty other premium brands.
Ongame offers a unique business model called Essence that measures each player’s contribution to the poker network in real-time and rewards each operator accordingly. This means that operators that have a lot of recreational players receive more revenues, prompting them to invest more in poker.
“With Sportingbet we are building on our position as the premier choice for sportsbook operators,” says David Pittel, managing director of Ongame Network. “Sportingbet not only brings us increased liquidity and reach in further markets, but more importantly they share our view of poker. We are really looking forward to working with them.’
Ongame claims that it is the world’s largest B2B poker provider. The global network includes more than 25 of the e-gaming industry’s strongest brands and operators and up to 45,000 concurrent players at peak hours.
The deal with Ongame means that Sportingbet will be offering its players access to the Ongame network as a second option in addition to GTechG2′s International Poker Network.
