SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
bwin.party has continued to dispose of non-core assets, by confirming the sale of its World Poker Tour operations to Hong Kong listed social gaming operator Ourgame Holdings for a sum of $35 million in cash.
bwin.party will close its six year ownership of the WPT franchise, which it acquired in 2009 for $12.5 million by Party Gaming prior to its 2011 corporate merger with sportsbook Bwin.
Martin Weigold, CFO of bwin.party, commented on the sale: “Over the past six years we have built WPT into a global franchise, with tournaments and TV deals in many countries including Asia, where poker remains a popular and growing sport.However, consistent with our strategy of divesting our non-core assets, we believe that now is the right time to release that value for shareholders so that we can focus our efforts on our core real money gaming and technology business.”
The WPT which hosts 70 tournaments worldwide, reported losses of $4.1 million in 2014. bwin.party governance had detailed at the start of 2015, that the operator would look to dispose of non-core assets in order to help its potential sale to interested parties.
Ourgame Holdings, a social games operator that specialises in card based games, stated that it intended to use the WPT brand to extend its games portfolio globally.
WPT President and CEO Adam Pliska commented on the company’s new owners
“Having already established an exciting partnership with Ourgame, a high growth company led by an enthusiastic group that is fully invested in the global growth of the sport of poker, we are delighted to now become a fully-integrated member of the Ourgame family,”
