he Cereus online poker network, formed by Absolute Poker and UltimateBet in 2008, has been sold to Antigua based Blanca Games for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition includes the Cereus network, operating software and the AbsolutePoker and UB brands.
Blanca Games is headed by Stuart Gordon, founder and operator of online bingo site bingomania.
Commenting on the acquisition, Gordon stated that security will continue to be a key area of focus for the network going forward. Both Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet have in the past been mired in cheating and security scandals.
“The acquisition of Cereus is a significant opportunity for us,” says Blanca Games CEO Stuart Gordon. “Cereus is a major platform of well-managed assets. Over the past few years, it has created new brands, like ub.com, that are extremely well-positioned in the most desirable demographic in our market: players in the 20s and 30s age brackets. From our perspective, we have acquired a large, sophisticated online gaming operation with state-of-the art capabilities, ranging from compliance to business intelligence to online marketing to customer service. We see a tremendous growth opportunity in this deal and beyond, as Blanca seeks additional acquisitions in the market.
“We intend to leverage the existing strengths of the Cereus Poker Network, particularly in the areas of security and customer service. Although we are impressed with many of the new security features on the Network today, security is and will remain our top priority.”
Cereus is the third largest US facing online poker network according to PokerScout.com, behind PokerStars and Full Tilt, albeit with a fraction of their liquidity.
The network’s former owner, Tokwiro, is yet to comment on the sale, although a statement is expected to be released next week.
Showing posts with label UB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UB. Show all posts
August 27, 2010
January 04, 2010
UB partners up with the Calgary Flames
UltimateBet, the online poker site owned by Tokwiro Enterprises and a member of the Cereus Network, has signed a sponsorship agreement with Canadian National Hockey League team the Calgary Flames, integrating tickets in its games into its promotional activities.
The agreement includes provision for UltimateBet's logo to appear on dual rinkboards at the Flames' home arena when the Alberta team takes to the ice against the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 2nd, 2010.
To celebrate the Calgary collaboration at eight home games during the month of January, UB.net is giving U.S. and Canadian players a chance to earn one of four pairs of prestige tickets to attend the NHL match up between the Flames and the Ottawa Senators at Pengrowth Saddledome on March 11th.
Players with a penchant for first class hockey who want to benefit from the promotions can participate in one of eight daily UB.net online poker satellite tournaments, where the top 100 players from each qualifier will win a seat into a Sunday Main Event, details of which are available on the UltimateBet website.
Starting on Sunday, January 3rd, the Texas Hold ‘em satellites will take place every Sunday through Saturday throughout the month, at three hour intervals intervals from 6am until midnight. Each UB.net Calgary Flames Main Event awards the winner with the top prize of two tickets to the Flames Vs Senators game, plus $1 000 cash for travel expenses.
An additional pair of tickets to the luxury hospitality suite at the Flames V. Senators ‘face-off' will be given away on location at one of the eight home games. The random lucky in-arena winner will go head to head on the Jumbotron with a pre-recorded Phil Hellmuth in a hockey-trivia game of "Truth" or "Bluff". If the challenger can beat the Poker Brat at correctly guessing which facts are true or false, then the tickets are theirs for the taking.
The agreement includes provision for UltimateBet's logo to appear on dual rinkboards at the Flames' home arena when the Alberta team takes to the ice against the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 2nd, 2010.
To celebrate the Calgary collaboration at eight home games during the month of January, UB.net is giving U.S. and Canadian players a chance to earn one of four pairs of prestige tickets to attend the NHL match up between the Flames and the Ottawa Senators at Pengrowth Saddledome on March 11th.
Players with a penchant for first class hockey who want to benefit from the promotions can participate in one of eight daily UB.net online poker satellite tournaments, where the top 100 players from each qualifier will win a seat into a Sunday Main Event, details of which are available on the UltimateBet website.
Starting on Sunday, January 3rd, the Texas Hold ‘em satellites will take place every Sunday through Saturday throughout the month, at three hour intervals intervals from 6am until midnight. Each UB.net Calgary Flames Main Event awards the winner with the top prize of two tickets to the Flames Vs Senators game, plus $1 000 cash for travel expenses.
An additional pair of tickets to the luxury hospitality suite at the Flames V. Senators ‘face-off' will be given away on location at one of the eight home games. The random lucky in-arena winner will go head to head on the Jumbotron with a pre-recorded Phil Hellmuth in a hockey-trivia game of "Truth" or "Bluff". If the challenger can beat the Poker Brat at correctly guessing which facts are true or false, then the tickets are theirs for the taking.
November 18, 2009
Leading online poker site UltimateBet finds a new home at UB.com
Tuesday signified a landmark day in the online poker industry, as Ultimate Bet, a USA-facing site on the CEREUS Poker Network, rebranded itself UB.com. The two-letter acronym has been the site’s nickname since its launch 10 years ago.
“Raise, Stack, Own” becomes the new mantra of UB.com, which retains the gold color theme of the old Ultimate Bet, but adds a baby blue hue as well. “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke, 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, and PokerRoad CEO Joe Sebok become the front men of the new site, which can be accessed by visiting UB.com or UltimateBet.com. A software update went live this morning and players’ user names and passwords will remain the same as they were prior to the UB.com transition.
UB and its sister site, Absolute Poker, are both owned by Tokwiro, whose CEO, Paul Leggett, commented in a press release, “The launch of UB.com represents a turning point for our company. We have assembled a great group of professionals who are passionate about poker to build the UB brand. Our goal is to create products and services that poker players really want. We are trying to listen very carefully to both our players and the poker community to help us achieve this goal.”
New lobby filters made their debut on Tuesday as part of the software update to UB.com. Omaha tables can now be filtered, making finding a game even simpler. In addition, the new update added color-coded icons to the tournament and ring game lobbies. In the former, special designations are given for Turbo, Ultra Turbo, Rebuy, Deep Stack, Bounty, Six-Max, Four-Max, and Heads-Up formats. In cash games, color-coded icons exist for Turbo, Jackpot, 7-2, Deep Stack, 50 Minimum Big Blind, and Ante tables on the virtual felts of UB.com. At the bottom of the lobby, a horizontal legend reminds users of what the new icons signify.
The lobby takes on a sleek yellow feel and the total update when we ran Ultimate Bet’s Mac version was 8,600 KB, which took about two minutes to download. The upper left corner of the lobby features the sleek UB.com black and yellow logo with the player and table counts given right underneath it written in white block lettering. The Mac version, which was rolled out in September along with an Instant Play option, still is limited to a maximum of four open tables. The Instant Play version requires the latest version of Java to be installed on the Mac or Windows device.
The new cash game filters include the maximum number of players, table stack sizes, and table type. In addition, you can specify the number of players per flop and the number of players per table to ensure that only desired tables come up in the search. A total of 30 new tournaments featuring $1 million in guaranteed prize money have been introduced as part of a gradual overhaul, quickly establishing the USA-friendly CEREUS Network as one of the top around.
Hellmuth, who has long served as the face of the popular online poker site, talked about the movement from Ultimate Bet to UB.com: “In the ten years since I have been involved with the UB brand, I have never been prouder to represent the company as much as I am right now. We have great people captaining the ship, we have a great vibe, and some serious swagger. I look forward to the day when we are the largest poker site on the planet.”
According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, the CEREUS Network is the sixth largest worldwide with a seven-day running average of 2,750 real money ring game players, about one-tenth of the traffic of PokerStars, the largest site in the industry. UB.com made waves in late October by changing its raise logic and launching synchronized breaks in its larger tournaments at 55 minutes past each hour, in line with the precedents set by PokerStars and Full Tilt.
UB and its sister site, Absolute Poker, are both owned by Tokwiro, whose CEO, Paul Leggett, commented in a press release, “The launch of UB.com represents a turning point for our company. We have assembled a great group of professionals who are passionate about poker to build the UB brand. Our goal is to create products and services that poker players really want. We are trying to listen very carefully to both our players and the poker community to help us achieve this goal.”
New lobby filters made their debut on Tuesday as part of the software update to UB.com. Omaha tables can now be filtered, making finding a game even simpler. In addition, the new update added color-coded icons to the tournament and ring game lobbies. In the former, special designations are given for Turbo, Ultra Turbo, Rebuy, Deep Stack, Bounty, Six-Max, Four-Max, and Heads-Up formats. In cash games, color-coded icons exist for Turbo, Jackpot, 7-2, Deep Stack, 50 Minimum Big Blind, and Ante tables on the virtual felts of UB.com. At the bottom of the lobby, a horizontal legend reminds users of what the new icons signify.
The lobby takes on a sleek yellow feel and the total update when we ran Ultimate Bet’s Mac version was 8,600 KB, which took about two minutes to download. The upper left corner of the lobby features the sleek UB.com black and yellow logo with the player and table counts given right underneath it written in white block lettering. The Mac version, which was rolled out in September along with an Instant Play option, still is limited to a maximum of four open tables. The Instant Play version requires the latest version of Java to be installed on the Mac or Windows device.
The new cash game filters include the maximum number of players, table stack sizes, and table type. In addition, you can specify the number of players per flop and the number of players per table to ensure that only desired tables come up in the search. A total of 30 new tournaments featuring $1 million in guaranteed prize money have been introduced as part of a gradual overhaul, quickly establishing the USA-friendly CEREUS Network as one of the top around.
Hellmuth, who has long served as the face of the popular online poker site, talked about the movement from Ultimate Bet to UB.com: “In the ten years since I have been involved with the UB brand, I have never been prouder to represent the company as much as I am right now. We have great people captaining the ship, we have a great vibe, and some serious swagger. I look forward to the day when we are the largest poker site on the planet.”
According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, the CEREUS Network is the sixth largest worldwide with a seven-day running average of 2,750 real money ring game players, about one-tenth of the traffic of PokerStars, the largest site in the industry. UB.com made waves in late October by changing its raise logic and launching synchronized breaks in its larger tournaments at 55 minutes past each hour, in line with the precedents set by PokerStars and Full Tilt.
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