For those of you who have been following the story since early in the year, it may not come as much of a surprise, but to the rest of us, this could be news that shakes up the whole online poker balance of power, as two of the world’s leading poker sites, bwin Poker (#5) and partypoker (#3), have finally officially merged, according to a press release dated July 29, 2010.
In that same press release, it was asserted that the new bwin Poker/partypoker combination will surpass the top two sites (which shall remain nameless) and take the top spot of number one poker site in the world. Only time will tell whether those claims can be met.
Based on traffic numbers, it looks as though the bwin Poker/partypoker merger will essentially double both sites player pools, with bwin Poker get slightly the better end of the deal (having slightly fewer players to start with). In all, the post-merger poker room should have close to 6,000 daily players. Currently, the merged sites joint network is valued near $3 billion. All it would take would be a re-entry into the United States online poker market, where most poker sites get 50% of their traffic, for partypoker and bwin Poker to fulfil their claim of market superiority.
What can bwin Poker and partypoker players expect to get out of this deal? Expect twice as many fish in the online poker sea, more big money promotions, now cross-platform, most likely with bigger prize pools too.
Party Gaming, which is based in Gibraltar, and bwin Poker, which is based in Vienna, Austria, are still currently running their separate sites, and members of either site will not yet be automatically admitted entry to the other, soon-to-be sister site (although that seems imminent).