Online Poker (Is this the end)

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Coral Poker Migrating to partypoker, Ladbrokes To Follow in 2020

The Move Is Unsurprising

Could Playtech Be Switching Hands?

The online poker merry-go-round continues with Coral Poker the last online poker site to announce it is switching networks.

Coral Poker planned to close its skin on the iPoker Network on Dec. 4 and move to partypoker later this month. It completes a full 360 as Coral Poker used to be part of partypoker’s network several years ago.

An email received by Coral Poker’s players informed them of the impending change.

We're making big changes: Coral Poker are joining the GVC PartyPoker network, the safest and most established poker network in the world.

These changes won't affect your cash balance, but unfortunately they will reset your Poker Points and Bonus balances.

Points, Bonuses, Golden Chips & Free Spins will remain in your account until 23:59 on 3rd December 2019.

Coral Poker Team

Several posters on the TwoPlusTwo forums vented their frustration at only being given a week to spend their loyalty points and clear any unreleased bonuses. PokerNews, however, has since learned the migration will not be completed until the start of the New Year so they have approximately three weeks to tie up any loose ends.

Ladbrokes is set to follow in Coral Poker’s footsteps and become part of partypoker’s player pool once the Coral migration is completed.

The Move Is Unsurprising

It is a move that has been expected for a while after GVC Holdings, parent company of partypoker, acquired Ladbrokes-Coral for £3.2 billion in March 2018. The sale could have cost up to £4 billion, but a reduced price was written into the sale’s terms if the British government slashed the maximum stake of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) from £100 to £2, a move that happened in May 2018.

PartyPoker

GVC acquired Ladbrokes-Coral Group only 28 months after Ladbrokes and Coral joined forces in a £2.3 billion merger in November 2016. Rumors of GVC’s interest in the newly merged company started circulating in November 2017 and the acquisition completed in March 2018.

Earlier this year, on Feb. 28th to be exact, GVC Holdings and Playtech, the owner of the iPoker Network, announced a new long-term agreement that see Playtech continue to provide its software and expertise to all GVC brands.

Playtech specializes in online casinos, back-office software, and self-service betting terminals and supplies these to Ladbrokes Coral and GVC Holdings throughout Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, and Belgium. The deal is set to run until the year 2025. There has been no indication Coral Poker and Ladbrokes Poker moving to partypoker will have any effect on this latest agreement.

Could Playtech Be Switching Hands?

There have been rumors that Playtech could be set for a takeover of its own. Its share price has halved in the last 12 months on the back of two profit warnings. Only three years ago, shares in Playtech were being traded at 991 pence per share. Fastforward to today and each share is only worth 382.10 pence per share.

Those rumors have gained a little credibility with activist investor Jason Ader of Springowl Asset management quietly building a 5% stake in the struggling software provider. Ader was thought to be instrumental in forcing bwin.party digital entertainment into the hands of GVC Holdings.

Ader has already demanded Playtech refocuses on the gambling industry and, on Nov. 15, 2019, went on record to call Playtech “the most undervalued gaming company in the world,” and said Playtech would be the ideal candidate for a leveraged buyout.

Perhaps GVC Holdings, who have been actively vacuuming up companies over the past few years, would be a prime candidate for such a takeover.

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Coral Poker set to migrate with the partypoker player pool. Ladbrokes to follow suit during early 2020.