Russian Revolution

London/Stockholm, 17th November.

Ongame, the world’s third-largest online poker network announced its entrance into Eastern Europe with the launch in Poland and Russia of Europoker.com, a real-money poker website. Ongame is the first of the major online gambling operators to make poker available online to Polish and Russian players in their native languages.

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Online and casino poker in Russia is still in an embryonic stage. Dmitry Lesnoi, publisher of the monthly magazine Casino Games said, “Five years ago, there was a total of 200 people playing poker regularly in Moscow, and now there are thousands of players playing on the Internet and in casinos.” The market in Russia is growing and could potentially be a huge. It certainly looks set to be tapped and milked by a flood of hungry suitors led by Ongame.

The Russian launch of Europoker.com will be accompanied by a million-dollar marketing campaign centered on Moscow. The campaign, which will include radio and TV advertising, will run until the end of 2005, when limits come into force governing the promotion of gambling.

The popularity of gambling in Russia has boomed in the past three years with the number of casinos growing by 93 per cent, from 30 to 58, and slot machines by 250 per cent, from 20,000 to 70,000. [Source: Moscow Authorities.] In addition, investment in marketing gambling has increased by 38 per cent in the past 12 months.

Jakob Söderbaum, VP and Director of New Markets at Ongame said: "Online gambling in Russia is still very much in its infancy, but with internet penetration growing and interest in gambling on the increase, the signs are that Russia will become an important market for the industry. With there currently being no clear market leader and only a short period before advertising restrictions take effect, the next six weeks will prove critical to the long term look of the Russian market."

In addition to taking Europoker.com into Russia and Poland, Ongame will also be launching the site in Spain and Germany in the respective languages. Alongside Russian, Polish, German and Spanish, Europoker.com can also be viewed in English.

Patrik Selin, CEO of Ongame said: "To date the industry has focused attention on the US and Northern European markets where poker is better established as a form of entertainment. At Ongame we are convinced that the popularity of poker will spread to Central and Eastern Europe and that these markets, along with those in Asia and Australasia, will be key to gaining market share."

Initially, Europoker.com will only offer real money poker but casino games such as roulette, blackjack and slots will be introduced in the early part of 2006.