Ourgame Purchases World Poker Tour for $35 million

12:53
22 Jun

In a world where a few million dollars will barely be able to buy you much more than a house in some cities, Hong Kong-based online gaming company Ourgame has bought one of the most notable poker businesses for $35 million.

It is not a huge amount of cash considering the high prices for major sports companies and brands. Many top basketball and football teams are now valued in the billions while numerous businesses in the sports industry are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The purchase of the World Poker Tour (WPT) from bwin.party for $35 million is a bargain when looking at the transaction from this perspective.

But bwin.party are not losing out.

We are delighted to now become a fully-integrated member of the Ourgame family

The company bought WPT in 2009 for $12.3 million, which means bwin.party nearly tripled their cost return on WPT in just six years. WPT President and CEO Adam Pliska said the fast growing nature of Ourgame meant that there would likely be exciting times ahead for the poker tour.

Mr Pliska also gave credit to bwin.party for the work they put in during the time they owned the WPT, which saw the Tour increase in popularity.

I want to thank bwin.party CEO Norbert Teufelberger and bwin.party CFO Martin Weigold for all of their support over the last six years, and for helping facilitate this agreement. Adam Pliska;
The WPT will continue to expand under Ourgame’s ownership as it is a primary priority of the new owners, as according to the company’s CEO Frank Ng.
WPT will continue to expand its already impressive global presence, bringing poker and gaming entertainment to cities and homes around the world via television broadcasts, mobile devices, card tables, and more.
The link between WPT and Ourgame is not new – both companies actually announced an alliance in December last year that aimed to expand WPT’s reach in Asia. The alliance led to the announcement of a number of WPT events in Asia, including the WPT Philippines and the WPT National China.
The process will be accelerated now that Ourgame owns WPT outright. Professional live poker in East and Southeast Asia has been mainly dominated by the PokerStars-sponsored Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT).
However, with WPT now owned by Ourgame, Asia-based professional poker players should expect more major poker events to be held in the region.

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