After a little less than a year, Mansion Poker and the Ongame Network have decided to split amicably.
Gibraltar-based Mansion Poker joined Ongame on October 12, 2007 amid plenty of goodwill. Guy Gussarsky, CEO of the Mansion Group, declared at the time that Ongame’s “established liquidity” would allow them to offer greater prize pools and promotions, and that Ongame had been chosen as Mansion’s platform not only because of their trustiness and superior software but also because of “their ability to enhance our business rather than consume it.” The Ongame Network was also thrilled to welcome Mansion Poker into its ranks, and spokesman Tomer Katz referred to the “great synergy” shared by the companies as he looked forward to “move our online poker network to a whole new level.”
But last Friday both companies announced in a very low key manner that their joint business is over:
In a mutual decision, Mansion (Gibraltar) Ltd (…) and Ongame Network have decided to part ways and have moved the MansionPoker.com Poker service from the Ongame Network as of September 24th, 2008.
Due to strategic differences it has been decided to end the two companies’ dynamic one-year partnership before Ongame Network enters the preparation phase of launching a new online poker network based on the recently announced P5 Poker Engine product.
It is refreshing to see two companies split up among good wishes instead of lawsuits and mud-slinging (Poker Trillion comes to mind.)
Mansion Poker will now migrate to the iPoker network, which according to our sources is the 4th most popular site for ring games – a slight improvement from the Ongame Network, which is number 5 according to the same sources. This means Mansion Poker members will partake of a larger player base, for more action at the tables and shorter waiting times. Some of Mansion’s new neighbors are Titan Poker, Betfred Poker, Chili Poker and Poker Ocean.
Ongame network – home of popular sites PokerRoom, Hollywood Poker, Red Kings and Eurobet – will now focus on the launch of its new P5 Poker Engine, which is according to their site “the first game engine ever developed specifically for online poker.” It was recently showcased at the European i-Gaming Congress and Expo in Barcelona, and it is expected to “create a whole new end-user online poker experience.” Why Mansion Poker chose to bow out of Ongame before the launch of this powerful new engine is not yet clear.
