Tuesday marked the official move of Betsafe to the Ongame Network. An e-mail sent to players on Monday outlined the changes that would take place as a result of the transition, which was scheduled to be completed by 21:00 Central European Time (CET) today.
The online poker room had been a staple of the CryptoLogic Network. However, by the end of the first quarter of 2009, CryptoLogic is slated to merge its online poker rooms with the Boss Network, whose sites include CelebPoker and Paradise Poker. CryptoLogic will then focus its resources on software development. The Ongame Network is owned by bwin Interactive Entertainment, whose Press Officer, Kevin O’Neal, commented in a press release distributed in January, “We feel confident that Betsafe is the right partner for us and we are looking forward to a successful and long lasting partnership. Betsafe has the knowledge and expertise needed and contributes to the liquidity of an interesting customer segment perfectly suited for Ongame Network.”
At 15:45 CET on Tuesday, Betsafe players were no longer able to log into its poker client as the changeover began. Fifteen minutes later, all players were booted off of Betsafe’s tables, with funds in play being transferred back into individuals’ accounts. At 19:30 CET, existing funds migrated to Betsafe’s main account and, an hour and a half hour later, the poker room was scheduled to open its doors officially on the Ongame Network, although Live Support stated this may not occur until 22:00 CET. The site has over 150,000 players in total who were affected by the switch to the Ongame Network, which does not accept players from the United States.
Betsafe’s new home debuted its P5 Poker Engine at the International Gaming Expo in London last week. It is the driving force behind Ongame’s expansion into the Italian poker market, which recently was legalized and regulated. In addition, the network expects to utilize the P5 Poker Engine software throughout all of its member rooms, according to a recent press release: “The next step is to implement the P5 Poker Engine with its brand new technology and enhanced features to all Ongame Network partners.”
The Ongame Network currently includes Best Poker, Bet24, Betsson, Bruce Betting, bwin, Casino Euro, Cherry Casino, Coral Eurobet, Eurobet, Euro Poker, Fonbet, Gala Casinos, Goal Win, Heypoker, Hollywood Poker, Interwetten, PokerIdol, Poker Loco, PokerRoom, Prime Poker, RedKings, Stryyke, Tower Gaming, and Winamax. The company is based in Gibraltar and licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which is located in Canada.
At the close of trading on Tuesday, the date of the changeover of Betsafe to Ongame, the network’s parent company, bwin Interactive Entertainment, was trading down €0.55 to €18.50. Over the last 52 weeks, it has traded in a range of €10.50 to €24.45. Its low was reached in December and it has since rebounded nearly 100% in trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange, where it can be found under the symbol “BWIN.”
In order to register an account on the new Ongame Network software, existing Betsafe players must download the new client from the online poker site. Then, they will log in with their existing Betsafe user name and password and choose a brand new screen name for the Ongame Network (or use the same user name if it is available). Money must then be transferred from Betsafe’s main account to the poker account.
At the time of writing, an error message of “File does not exist” was returned when attempting to download the Ongame Network software. A similar error message was received when opening up the site’s Instant Play option. Betsafe Live Support stated that the new software would be available for players to download around 22:00 CET on Tuesday night.
