Entraction to Sell Their Online Poker Sites

Thursday April 16, 2009

The Entraction Holding AB announced this week that its Casablanca Gaming Group subsidiary, Casagaming Ltd, has signed a Letter of intent to sell its customer-facing poker operations to iGame Ltd. The move frees another Entraction Holding subsidiary, Entraction Solutions, which has been operating the Entraction Poker Network, to focus solely on being a business to business(B2B) supplier of products and services for internet gaming.

Entraction separated from Casablanca Gaming back in December 2007 when the original 24hPoker holding company was split into separate consumer and supplier companies, in part to make it clear that online gaming operations were not being conducted in Sweden, since Swedish law does not permit online gaming operations within Swedish borders.

The signed Letter of Intent includes commits iGame Ltd to acquire the online poker assets of Casagaming Ltd. Malta-based Casagaming Ltd operates the well known online poker sites 24hPoker and Martins Poker, and more. iGame operates online poker site Pokerihuone on the same Entraction poker network as the Casagaming sites.

Entraction CEO Peter Astrom said, "The selling of the gaming operations is a milestone for Entraction and enables us to focus 100% on our supplier operation. In a time when many of our competitors does the opposite and start to mix the roles of operator and supplier, Entraction's focus makes us both more attractive to new parters and more transparent to investors." He added, "I am certain that iGame Ltd will continue to successfully operate the sites in our network."

A spokesperson for Entraction said the move was a "strategic decision" aimed at avoiding any element of confusion among its B2B clients. "We wanted to make sure we are only a supplier," said the spokesperson. "We don't want to compete with anyone and have no intention to do so. It hasn't been a huge problem, but we were spending a lot of time answering questions. If you compete against your partners, they might not be happy."

Entraction will now be focusing solely on the provision of poker and sports-betting software, with the development of a live-betting offering a top priority. Entraction also provides casino and bingo products through deals with Net Entertainment and WagerWorks.

According to Entraction, 24hPoker and Martins Poker accounted for around 10 percent of the liquidity on the Entraction poker network. The other top sites on the network include NoIQpoker, Redbet and Goldbet, as well as parts of the VC Poker offering. NoIQ joined Entraction from Playtech's iPoker network back in January after rumoured disagreements surrounding the issue of rakeback.