While its owners have not issued an official public announcements, reports in the poker media during the past week indicate that the Ongame Network will be shutting down on October 15th. The Ongame Network’s roots date back to well before the poker boom, but after peaking in 2008, the network had gradually declined to irrelevance.
Though the Ongame Network was created in 2004, it really started in 1999 with the launch of the aptly named online poker room, PokerRoom.com. Part of the site’s appeal before the poker boom was that it was playable in a web browser, making it the home for many a poker playing Mac user. Back then and really for many of the years that followed, poker client software was only developed for PC’s. PokerRoom.com also had a very popular message board, one of the first successful poker communities on the internet.
When the UIGEA was passed in 2006, the Ongame Network withdrew from the U.S. market. Unlike many sites and networks that cratered from losing U.S. customers, Ongame continued to do well for a while, topping out at a seven-day average of 4,800 cash game players in April 2008.
Shortly after the UIGEA pull out, Ongame was bought by Betandwin, a company that would later shorten that name and become bwin. Betandwin paid $570 million for the network, a figure that dropped jaws in the poker industry. In 2011, bwin merged with PartyGaming, a move which looked like it might boost Ongame’s profile even more, but it was the opposite that happened. PartyPoker was the poker focus of the company; bwin’s players were moved over to the PartyPoker platform and Ongame suffered.
Ongame was sold again in October 2012 to Amaya Gaming for €15 million and then again to the NYX Gaming Group. This spring, NYX sold the Ongame Network to an unnamed company.
From that peak of 4,800 cash game players, the Ongame Network was down to only 140 as of when the news of the closure broke last week. That is one hell of a steep dive.
Many of the dozen or so member rooms of the Ongame Network have already made plans to move elsewhere. Evoke Gaming is moving its brands – RedBet Poker, WhiteBet Poker, and Heypoker – to the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN). Bestpoker is heading over to the GGNetwork, which recently signed a deal to become the Tain Network’s poker provider. RedKings, the rare semi-significant player on Ongame, has already made the switch to MPN, as has PAF.com. Pokeridol is also moving on, but it has not said to where yet.
Paradise Poker (yes, Paradise Poker), GoldenPalace.be, Full Deck Poker, and Scandic Bookmakers have yet to make their intentions known, though maybe Golden Palace will pay somebody to tattoo a press release on their forehead.
