Playtech Acquires Tribeca Tables

Just days after announcing that it was closing its doors to U.S. customers, Tribeca Tables is the focus of the online poker world again. Today, Playtech announced that it has agreed to purchase Tribeca for a minimum of $75 million. That figure could grow to as high as $139 million if the revenue generated as a result of the Tribeca acquisition reaches $29 million or more within a year of the network migration.

Playtech is the software developer for the iPoker network platform. This acquisition will combine notable iPoker rooms such as Titan Poker and Noble Poker with popular Tribeca rooms, including Golden Palace Poker and Doyle’s Room. Additionally, a third poker network will be included in this merger, as Tribeca also announced in October that it would be absorbing the Tain Poker Network.

The chain of events makes sense, and was almost certainly planned. Tribeca took much longer than several other poker networks to decide on departing the U.S. market, but it was obviously considering its options if it did pull out. In preparation, it merged with Tain, which is a primarily Euro-facing network. This would help ease the blow of losing U.S. customers. This merger then made Tribeca more attractive to potential buyers, such as Playtech, since Tribeca would now have a more internationally diversified player base.

As Playtech (and its iPoker network) had already banned U.S. players and was not a very large network in the first place, it needed to find a way to grow quickly to remain competitive. The new Tribeca/Tain global poker network was an acquisition target that made sense.

Originally published November 13, 2006