Re: Nextpoker and Ongame

On November 3, Ongame Network announced that it had excluded Nextpoker from the Ongame poker network because of “repeated violations of the rakeback policy”. Ongame’s announcement is totally false and we are considering legal action as a result of this announcement. It may be noted that Nextpoker is not the first, and most likely not the last, operator to leave Ongame.

Nextpoker is owned by Abbantina Malta Ltd and operated on Ongame until October 31, 2008, through a White Label agreement with Redbet Ltd. Thus, Abbantina never had a direct contractual relationship with Ongame. On July 31, 2008, Abbantina terminated the White Label agreement with Redbet for various reasons, one being the unhealthy situation on Ongame outlined below. The notion that Ongame terminated Nextpoker’s agreement is therefore doubly false. In any case, from what we understand, Ongame is still holding players’ funds as a result of the termination. We trust that players’ funds will be returned without delay.

Nextpoker launched on Ongame in the summer of 2007 in the hope of joining a major, rakeback-free, network. It soon became clear that Ongame was far from rakeback-free. Big incumbent Ongame operators continued (and continue to this day) to offer rakeback to end customers through special agreements with Ongame, and at the same time, a vicious bonus war had broken out, pushing down the margins of mainly small and medium size operators on Ongame.

Nextpoker was at the forefront in working to protect operator margins on Ongame. This is evident from a letter sent to Ongame more than a year ago, on October 10, 2007, where a cap on bonuses and other concrete measure were proposed (the letter is available on www.nextpoker.com/letter1). In January 2008, Nextpoker wrote a second letter, with the aim of bringing the bonus situation to Ongame’s attention (the letter is available on www.nextpoker.com/letter2).

Nextpoker had some 15,000 registered players of which some 5,000 were active. During the 1+ year that Nextpoker operated, Ongame Network pointed out one (1) player who had been paid compensation by an affiliate in breach of network policy, in November-December 2007. Nextpoker took the appropriate measures at the time to remedy this breach. Ongame has notified Nextpoker, via Redbet Ltd, of alleged violations of network policy more than once though and Nextpoker has responded. The notifications and the replies can be made public upon request.

In the last of the replies Nextpoker sent to Ongame, in September 2008, we suggested that one of the “big four” accounting firms be contracted to perform a full audit of Nextpoker’s backoffice and other data sources in order to “…establish whether Nextpoker is an operator which uses rakeback as an acquisition tool (as has been claimed by Ongame)…” Ongame did not reply to this offer which, it may be added, still stands.

It is therefore not true that Nextpoker offered rakeback. It is true however that Nextpoker offered competitive bonuses, in line with network policy, as a result of Nextpoker being a new operator on a network with unhealthy price competition. A further example of this unhealthy competition is that Ongame’s house brands Pokerroom and Europoker have been promoted on rakeback sites.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that Ongame Network has in fact chosen to go down the road it officially says it despises, that of cash payments to players in direct relation to their rake contribution. Ongame recently introduced its “Loyalty Program Policy version 1.0”, which allows direct rakeback of up to 40% to players, although, in a twist of words, it is called “valueback”.


Alexander Pettersson, alex@abbantina.com
Director, Abbantina Malta Ltd