Playtech is purchasing PokerStrategy.com, the massive affiliate site, for €38.3 million ($49.8 million USD). It’s a huge deal that should raise the profile of both companies in the online poker space.
As one of the world’s biggest gaming platform providers, Playtech should be able to use it newly acquired access to PokerStrategy’s six million plus members to send plenty of business to its existing client base. That’s a serious advantage that’s especially advantageous in the new, more competitive, era of online poker.
Playtech seems to be taking pains to insure that the user-friendly elements that have made PokerStrategy.com such a success remain in place. To that end, they’ve retained most of the company’s upper management including CEO Damian Sokol; COO Pavel Stahno; and co-founder Dominik Kofert.
In a press release posted on PokerStrategy.com company officials had this to say about the sale:
PokerStrategy.com will stay fundamentally the same and maintain its independence in the market. We will continue working with all of our current partners and continue to add additional poker rooms for you to choose from, without any restrictions.
The release went on to state that Playtech is planning some software and infrastructure improvements that will be done with participation from the PokerStrategy.com community.
Besides being one of the top poker affiliate sites in the world, PokerStrategy.com is the very definition of the classic Internet success story.
The site was founded by Kofert, an Oxford mathematics student who parlayed a love of strategy games into a multi-million poker affiliate empire. Last year PokerStrategy.com pulled in around €19.5 million ($25.4 million USD) before taxes; had assets worth €16.3 million ($21.2 million USD); and over 1 billion pageviews.
What kind of impact do you think Playtech’s purchase of PokerStrategy.com will have on the online poker world? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.