888 Poker Acquires All American Poker Network

888 Poker scooped up the remaining interest in the All American Poker Network earlier this week, becoming the sole owner of the network.

888 Poker already owned a 47 per cent of the All American Poker Network and acquired the remaining 53 per cent from its joint venture partner Avenue Capital for $28 million. Under the signed deal 888 Poker will pay $10 million to Avenue Capital upfront, and another $18 million by the end of March 2019.

This is “an important strategic step towards 888 achieving its exciting long-term potential in the US,” said Itai Frieberger, CEO of 888 Holdings. “Taking outright ownership of AAPN gives 888 additional operational, technological and commercial flexibility to develop innovative and exciting new partnerships and launch in new states, through both B2B and B2C channels, as and when future regulation allow.”

When Was All American Network Created?

The All American Poker Network was created in 2014 as a joint venture between 888 Poker and Avenue Capital, with the goal of building an online poker platform in every state in which online poker became regulated and legal.

The spread of online poker hasn’t happen as quickly as expected with only four states currently allowing regulated online poker.

Pennsylvania became the fourth last year joining Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. No online poker portals have launched in Pennsylvania yet, but it is expected to happen sometime in 2019.

With Pennsylvania still awaiting launch, 888 Poker is currently the only operator setup for online poker in the other three regulated states – Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. 888 Poker has a state-wide monopoly on online poker in Delaware where they provide online poker software to the three racetracks that run the available online pokers sites.

888 Poker also has a shared liquidity player pool between the three states that allows them to share players. When Pennsylvania does officially launch expect 888 Poker to quickly add them to the liquidity sharing as soon as possible.

888 Poker already has a partnership in Pennsylvania with the Mount Airy Casino and is expected to go live sometime in early 2019.