Ongame Reportedly Closing Long-Running Online Poker Room
Ongame, one of the leaders of the online poker market in its formative years, will close its online poker rooms in October, Poker Industry PRO reported last week. The news was first reported by Russian site Pokeroff.
The exact date of the closure hasn't been confirmed, but the shutdown is expected to come sometime in October. Ongame operates a number of skins, some of which may be moving to other networks, according to Pro, but most are expected to be closing.
PokerRoom - at one point the market leader with more than 3.5 million players in the days before the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act - was an OnGame product. The UIGEA and Ongame's subsequent exit from the U.S. market let to a massive loss in market share. In the years that followed, a number of owners took hold of the company, including Amaya under now-deposed CEO David Baazov.
Most recently, it was acquired by NYX Gaming Group Limited earlier this year. The Las Vegas-based online gaming supplier had exclusive rights to Ongame's poker product in the U.S. market, which ultimately never amounted to anything.
Ongame's market share was sliding to a tiny average of 130 cash game players when NYX acquired it, according to PokerScout. Since then, the drop has only continued, with Ongame sitting in 35th place at the time of writing with an average of 109 players.
Image courtesy of Simeon/freeimages.com
