Sportingbet has announced the closure its Paradise Poker platform, incurring a write-off cost of £55m (US$107m).

The company said it will migrate Paradise players to its existent Sportingbet poker platform which runs off the Boss Media platform.

Sportingbet has announced the closure its Paradise Poker platform, incurring a write-off cost of £55m (US$107m).

The company said it will migrate Paradise players to its existent Sportingbet poker platform which runs off the Boss Media platform. The company has also announced a three-year extension to its agreement with Boss.

Though it is closing the platform, Sportingbet will retain the Paradise brand name.

Andy McIver, chief executive of Sportingbet, said the deal would make the Boss network “one of the largest in Europe”.

Sportingbet said it had approximately 6,500 players on both its platforms, but that the greater liquidity on the shared Boss platform meant it drove 60% higher yields per active player.

During the three months to October 2006, rake from the Boss-powered European poker platform amounted to £4.3m, up 72% year-on-year. The Paradise platform, in comparison, generated rake from non-US players of £3.8m, a 9% rise year-on-year.

Sportingbet said the combination of the two platforms would generate some cost savings but that these might be offset by a loss of revenue that could occur as a result of the migration of players from one platform to another.

Though surprised by the news, one industry insider suggested Paradise had been “suffering” since its UIGEA-forced withdrawal from the US in October. “This is significant,” he added. “It will provide a further boost for the network model.”

“It’s a big boost for Boss,” said another industry figure. He added that Sportingbet would likely find the migration process “expensive” in terms of how many players it might lose.

Sportingbet acquired Paradise Poker in October 2004 for $297.5m. At the time it was said to be the third largest poker room in the world with an estimated market share of 10%.

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I liked old paradise alot. They had some of the best mid-range tournaments around. They even sent me to the WSOP in Vegas.