Ourgame International Holdings Ltd. Sells World Poker Tour

Published on December 25th, 2018 2:50 pm EST

WPT Enterprises, which is the parent company of the World Poker Tour, has been sold yet again.

In 2009, bwin.party purchased the World Poker Tour for $12.3 million.

Six years later, in June of 2015, Ourgame International agreed to acquire the World Poker Tour for $35 million in cash.

Earlier this week, Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. agreed to pay $150 million for WPT Enterprises. Black Ridge Acquisition Corp., which was set up specifically to acquire companies, also announced that they would be purchasing Allied Esports International Inc., which is an esports entertainment company.

Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. will be rolling up WPT Enterprises and Allied Esports International Inc. and renaming the company Allied Esports Entertainment Inc., which will begin trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol AESE. According to Bloomberg (link below), the company will have an initial enterprise value of $214 million. Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. will be issuing $118 million worth of shares to Ourgame to close the deal, in addition to another $35 million.

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According to Bloomberg, the combined company will be looking to bring the "World Poker Tour's business model for live events and media distribution to the burgeoning world of competitive video gaming".

The main focus of the new company will be on the rapidly growing esports world, though the World Poker Tour's poker operations will remain intact.

Lyle Berman, who is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, will be involved in the new company, while Frank Ng, the former CEO of Ourgame, will serve as the company's Chief Executive Officer.

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Source: Bloomberg.com - Esports Has New Publicly Traded Company Putting on a Poker Face

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Filed Under: Other Poker News