888 Holdings spent $ 28 million to fully buy out the AAPN network, which provides various poker services. The new acquisition will allow the room management company to obtain unique advantages in the western segment of online poker.

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Many poker players in America understand how strange the situation with the legalization of this game inside the country itself seems: it is almost completely allowed, but still no full-fledged allowing bills have been adopted. This situation has been going on for quite some time, but at the same time, the latest news still makes the poker community alert and hold their breath in the hope that large-scale tournament competitions will soon be possible in the USA.

What does AAPN do?

This network was created by the management of the management group of Eights about five years ago in partnership with another large company, Avenue OLG Entertainment, which previously had the bulk of the shares. Now all the shares passed into the ownership of the holding.

Speaking quite simply, this network was created with the aim of symbiosis of the WSOP and 888 US skins, with the help of which users from three American states, where online poker is allowed to one degree or another (Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey), could arrange parties together. At the same time, this platform fully took into account all legal local details, which is why at the moment this network can be called, in fact, the largest and at the same time absolutely legal online poker site in the United States. Of course, such an acquisition opens up great opportunities for the Eights.

To assess the scale of this acquisition, it is worthwhile to carefully study the official statistics, which suggests that poker rooms in America, in fact, can compete only in New Jersey, with 888 clearly leading here. This superiority is provided by just the traffic that the company receives through its AAPN network. If you look at the remaining states, you can see that 888 Poker doesn’t have any clear competitors there.

What are the benefits of 888 Holdings?

Itai Frieberger, who holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of 888 Holdings, noted that for the whole company this is an incredibly important solution that is designed for the long term. In particular, we are talking about the "expansion" of the future poker market in America. After the G8s take over the entire existing network, they will be able to quickly respond to the changing structure of the gambling market in the United States, which may soon bring pleasant surprises to the poker community. How to download 888 poker client here

Of course, the G8 needs to regain its previous positions against the backdrop of an objectively disastrous (in terms of final revenue) year. Perhaps if the situation and attitude towards online poker really changes in the USA soon, this decision will become a kind of saving hook for 888 Poker. In any case, this is an interesting strategic decision that allows the G8s to beat the main competitors of PokerStars and partypoker, using the available opportunities in the US market, while they are conducting an aggressive competitive media war with each other.