Shuffle Master Terminates Deal to Purchase Ongame Network

It appears that Shuffle Master’s formal annoucement of their purchase of the Ongame Network from bwin.party was a bit premature. Earlier today, Shuffle Master announced to the London Stock Exchange that it will be withdrawing from it’s purchase of the network.

Shuffle Master had expected that the acquisition of Ongame would add to short term profits to the company, but it has become apparent to the company that this will not be the case. According to the a statement from Shuffle Master CEO Gavin Isaacs on Wednesday, “It has become evident to us that Ongame’s operations post-acquisition will not achieve the near-term results we initially expected and will require a larger ongoing investment than anticipated.”

The deal between bwin.party and Shuffle Master would have seen the Ongame Network sold to Shuffle Master for 19.5 Million euro in cash. The two companies “mutually agreed not to proceed with the proposed transaction.”

According to bwin.party, “The sale of surplus assets, including Ongame, remains a core part of bwin.party’s strategy. bwin.party is re-engaging with other third parties that have expressed an interest in acquiring Ongame.”

Exact details are unknown at this time, but part could be due to uncertainty in the online poker market in the US. While Nevada has proceeded with online poker licensing, there are a myriad of companies jockeying for position there and other states have either delayed or outright killed online gaming legislation.