PokerRoom and Europoker to be merged into BWin?

OodaThunkett · 11-21-2008, 01:50 PM

A poster on the PR forum has posted a link to a German site which is apparently claiming that PR and Europoker are being closed in the first quarter of next year, with the accounts moving to BWin.

Here is the link to the German site, and below is a translation from the article by another poster on the PR forum.

Quote:

As a conclusion from the latest quarterly report of bwin, the online poker sites PokerRoom and Europoker will stop their business with starting of 2009. Missing profit of the two projects was explained to be the reason.
In the explosive report they said: „While bwin was developing dynamically, the poker labels PokerRoom and Europoker could not reach the expectations. As already announced, during 1st quarter of 2009 the different poker labels will be combined with bwin poker. By this means the poker segment of the strong label bwin will profit, as well as from improved cost efficiency.
A little later on they wrote: “By combining the different poker labels with bwin poker during Q1 2009 a significant reduction of foreign currency exchange differences can be expected, as customer accounts on bwin are based on EUR value, while on PokerRoom and EuroPoker the basis is USD.
As a matter of fact, the two labels will be continued under bwin poker. Players don't have to be afraid to loose their money.
Once more it is obvious, how hard the fight on the online poker market has become meanwhile. A consolidation seems to be unavoidable.

EDIT: Now this has been posted by a mod:

Quote:

Yesterday, on the 20th of November, bwin head office posted their financial results for Q3 2008. In the announcement it was stated that PokerRoom and EuroPoker will be bundled into bwin poker during the course of Q1 2009.

Sometime in Q1 2009 every PokerRoom customer will get the possibility to choose to transfer their account to bwin. All customers will be informed well in advance and the transfer will allow all customers to keep their PokerRoom nickname if they choose to do so. We would like to reassure everyone that their loyalty to PokerRoom will pay off. The current offer at PokerRoom will remain the same for the time being and we encourage all PokerRoom customers to check out the full range of gaming products available at bwin. PokerRoom and bwin Poker players have been playing together at the same tables for the last couple of years now.

Pokah will be informed well in advance of any further developments that affect PokerRoom. There will be no further statements on this topic until after the weekend.

Best Regards
Don the Mod

If a mod could remove the question mark from the title to this thread I would be grateful, thanks. It's clearly a done deal.

OodaThunkett · 11-27-2008, 09:47 PM

A little more information on this, posted by a mod in 'Pokah', the PR forum.

Quote:

Hi,

I have some more information that I can share now.

Firstly the transfer process that will be used for the move to bwin will not be the same as the one used when HoldemPoker players joined PokerRoom. Instead of moving all accounts automatically each player will be given the option to choose to transfer. The transfer will not begin this year and there will be no significant changes to PokerRoom before the New Year.

Customers from the USA and other real money blocked countries such as Turkey will be offered to transfer to an account at free.bwin.com. where they can continue playing play money poker. Play money balances will not survive the transfer.

Customers that already have an account at bwin Poker will be able to merge their accounts and retain whichever nickname they wish to continue playing under.

For users that choose to transfer, all valid tournament tickets and the available real money balance on the account will be automatically transferred to the new account at bwin Poker. Monetary accounts at bwin are not available in US dollars and so a currency transfer will need to take place using a defined exchange rate. Where possible the account at bwin will be set up in the currency of your home country. The currency used to play poker however will remain the US dollar.

Team Play is not available at bwin but the possibility of adding it to bwin is under discussion.

bwin has a wider range of funding options available than PokerRoom has now which makes your account management potentially easier. Also bwin has a loyalty program called b'inside which provides some extra features on top of what you have come to expect from the Green, Silver and Gold Rooms. PokerRoom Player Points will be converted to a b'inside status level and the b'inside advantages will be available as soon as the transfer is completed. B'inside offers a fully stocked online store including clothes, gadgets and sports equipment, and the option to turn your points in tournament tickets, money for your account, live event packages and tickets to the VIP box for certain football (soccer) matches. Also contrary to some claims bwin is not just a German and French site - bwin is available in 22 different languages and has support available in each of them.

All players that choose to transfer will be given an incentive package. The package will not be forfeit if you already have an account at bwin. Also the sooner you choose to transfer once the option becomes available the better the offer you will receive. These offers are not finalized but once more information is available you will all be informed.

All staff that were directly employed to work in relation with PokerRoom have been found positions within bwin and many will move to work on the future development of bwin Poker.

The question on the future of Pokah and PokerRoom still remains partly open. Both will run as normal until the option to transfer to bwin is provided. Investigation is still underway to assess what will happen to Pokah and PokerRoom once transfer is offered. As soon as a final decision is made it will be communicated to Pokah.

Regards
Don the Mod

Superjas · 11-28-2008, 11:39 AM

All 3 rooms are owned by BWIN and this was officially annouced in their results last week

http://www.bwin.ag/page.aspx?view=qu..._11_08&lang=en