The Ongame Network took a strong step forward in differentiating itself from its online poker competitors late last week as it launched its new Android real money poker client. Ongame’s flagship skin, bwin.com, is the first licensee, with more to come later this year.
Ongame introduced its iPhone app in January, listed in the iPhone App Store as “bwin.com Poker” and available for free. Now with the launch of its Android app, all bwin players will have access to mobile poker. The iPhone app was only available through the phones marketplace and was therefore only able to be downloaded by players in the UK, France, and Austria. Full Tilt Poker has the only other real money Android app, “Full Tilt Poker Rush Mobile,” but since Full Tilt is at least temporarily out of business, Ongame has the lone Android real money poker offering on the market.
“Android was always the next step for us after launching the world’s first real-money poker app for iPhone six months ago,” said Berthold Kao, Product Manager for mobile at bwin.party. “The real-money iPhone app that we developed with Ongame has been a tremendous success, and we also believe that the Android app has significant potential. Building a mobile application is not just about format and technology. Delivering a mobile application that appeals to the mass market requires you to reinvent the whole poker experience.”
David Pittel, the Ongame Network’s Managing Director, added, “Mobile is a no longer a nice-to-have feature, it is what the digital consumer expects…The question now is not whether or not they own a smartphone; the question is whether they prefer iOS or Android.”
The Android app is the same as the iPhone app, a slimmed down version of the standard Ongame poker client. It is meant for the casual player, as it only allows customers to play one table at a time. The only games available are No-Limit, Pot-Limit, and Fixed-Limit Hold’em cash games, with maximum stakes of $3/$6, $5/$5, and $5/$10, respectively. Expansion into other games and tournaments is always a possibility down the road, though.
Ongame’s parent company, bwin, merged with PartyGaming in March and with that pairing, it was made known that the Ongame Network would be sold. Thus, there is always the chance that support for the Android app could be short lived, if the new owner wants nothing to do with it. Ongame’s head of poker, Fredrik Kjell, is hopefull, however, telling eGaming Review, “If the new owner wants to change the strategy then anything can happen, but I’m very enthusiastic about the mobile product so far and don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t keep developing our mobile product.”
The Android app is available for free at bwin.com.
The Ongame Network currently holds the fourth position on PokerScout.com’s cash game traffic rankings, behind PokerStars.com, PartyPoker.com, and the iPoker Network. It is trying to fight off 888Poker.com, though, with just 50 players (based on a seven day average) separating the two. The network is home to almost 30 poker rooms, including bwin.com, Betfair.com, HollywoodPoker.com, PokerLoco.com, and CoralPoker.com.
