eGaming Review reported at the weekend that Absolute Poker and Ultimate
Bet are about to announce their official merger on Monday. Rumors
of a buy out of Ultimate Bet by Absolute Poker had been swirling around
the industry for the past few weeks.
The two sites continue to take US bets, and are looking to consolidate
liquidity levels in the wake of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement
Act (UIGEA). Both sites are already sizeable players in the online
poker sector, and the combined entity is expected to create one of
the top three or four largest poker sites in the world.
Details are sketchy at this point, eGaming Review reports, and it
is unclear how the new company will be structured and marketed to
its largely US player base, though it is thought there will be a strong
marketing push in the US poker market in the near future. It is also
unclear how this merger will affect the staff of both companies.
Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet were unavailable for comment.
UltimateBet.com online poker has been dealing cards on the Internet
since 2000, and is operated by eWorld Holdings, Ltd., licensed by
the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.
AbsolutePoker.com is arguably the world's fourth largest online poker
destination offering worldwide access to multi-player online games
24 hours a day, seven days a week. Driven by proprietary software,
AbsolutePoker.com claims to have the most comprehensive, interactive
online poker room, providing such features as hand history, stat retrieval,
player note taking, chat, locate a player, six table play, and representative
image selection.
Both poker rooms use proprietary software.