Sportingbet Signs Entraction Network Deal

Sportingbet is one of the world’s biggest online gaming companies and its websites covers over 30 markets across Europe, Australia, Canada, South America and South Africa. As well as sports betting, the company owns the successful Paradise Poker brand and offers online casinos and poker to its customers through its current poker provider Boss Media.
Sportingbet has just announced that in addition to Boss Media it has also joined the Entraction online poker network so as to reach areas not already covered by the provider, particularly in Europe.
Peter Astrom, the CEO of Entraction said: “We are proud to welcome Sportingbet to our network. The deal shows that Entraction is an attractive partner for the largest players in the online gaming industry.”
Boss Media Poker Network, or the International Poker Network as it is also known as, is ranked 9th in the world and hosts over 30 poker sites including Paradise Poker, CelebPoker, Classic Poker, Fortune Poker, i4Poker, InterPoker, and Poker Heaven.
The Entraction Network, however, is ranked 13th highest in the world, focuses primarily on European customers and strictly enforces the ban on US players so that US IP addresses are prevented from viewing their website. The network usually host mostly small poker rooms with some mid range sites such as Devilfish Poker, NoiQ Poker, and Wasa Poker.
A Spokesperson for Entraction commented:  “Sportingbet has high standards and would not have signed up with us if it felt our software wasn’t up to scratch. While we started off with smaller operators, this deal shows we are now starting to recruit bigger and more established operators.”
Although Sportingbet’s contract with Boss Media Poker Network is due to run out in February 2010 a spokesperson from Entraction was quick to point out that: “We’re not competing with Boss but offering a complementary product, which proves the quality of our software. We’re not trying to prise Sportingbet away from Boss, we’re just trying to be complementary,”
On hearing the news, shares in the company rose around 3% to £61 on the London Stock Exchange and have almost tripled in value since October 2008 when they were went as low as £23.25 during the global financial crisis.