32Red to Take its Poker Vertical Offline after 16 Years

The distinguished 32Red online poker room from Kindred is set for closure starting Tuesday 19th May, when the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) will be taken offline. However, even with the closure of the poker network, players will still be allowed to log on to their gaming accounts to enjoy a host of other casino games available at the 32Red.com gaming site.

When breaking the news to its patrons through a statement on the platform’s website, 32Red also announced the official decommissioning of all the five Fish Party Jackpots as well as the Bad Beat Jackpot on the same date. Thereby, any unused funds that players had contributed towards the pools will be reimbursed while any remaining funds will be awarded via the Freeroll prize pools of the said jackpots on the 18th.

As disappointing as this news might be many poker pundits, Microgaming had already released a statement last year towards the end of September, confirming the closure of its proprietary poker network that operated for over 16 years. At that time, the Microgaming team indicated that they came to this decision after an extensive internal audit of their current product portfolio and future strategy.

When Microgaming broke the news last year, John Coleman, the company CEO came forward to defend the decision in a statement saying that; ‘‘The network model no longer fits with our strategic vision for poker, and this is the right time to announce the closure as we focus on redistributing key resources and personnel across the business.’’

The Fate of MPN’s Online Poker Skins

On its part, 32Red is currently encouraging its poker players to switch to the poker platform available at Unibet, one of the online gambling brands that are under the patronage of Kindred Group. 32Red itself was acquired by the Kindred Group back in February 2017 for a cool £175.6 million.

Upon this acquisition, a lot of questions were raised on the future of 32Red’s poker client, given that the Kindred Group’s Unibet Poker was already running its own impressive show. Back then, industry insiders thought that 32Red’s poker platform would be merged with Unibet’s, as was the case when Kindred Group purchased Stand James two years before in 2015.

Most of the other online poker skins that were powered by MPN all along already have new homes in their sights to keep the game going strong. So, while Microgaming’s poker network will be shut down, that will not be the end of online poker as we know it.

Grosvenor Poker, for example, announced that it will set up shop on the highly acclaimed iPoker Network from Playtech, to join the ranks of brands like William Hill, bet365 and Betfair on the online poker platform. Grosvenor’s migration will come with an exclusive collection of reward filled perks that include new games, tournaments, missions, promotions, and a new loyalty scheme.

OlyBet, the subsidiary of the Olympic Entertainment Group, which is an Estonian gambling giant, is another popular online poker skin that will march forward despite the closure of MPN. With the departure from MPN, the OlyBet poker client will now send its poker enthusiasts to the GGNetwork, where players can go head to head in games like GGPoker and Natural8.

Other than 32Red, Grosvenor, and Olybet, 13 more online poker skins were powered by MPN. Three of the other skins are expected to shut down, while 8 of them will join Grosvenor at Playtech’s iPoker Network. For now, the fate of the two remaining skins is unknown.