Two major poker networks that rely mostly on their European customers announced today that they will be merging their poker players in one big network.

Cryptologic Network has had problems every since it closed its door from American players in 2006 following the UIGEA. Shortly after that their biggest client Betfair decided to leave the network and set up their own site powered by Pokerchamps software ? which they had bought little while earlier for around 10million euros.

In 2007 the numbers of players kept going down steadily but slowly and the managment still thought they could turn the ship around and make Cryptologic the network it once was.

This year the problems have gotten worse as several operators have decided to leave the network to go to a bigger network, PokerPlex already switched over to iPoker and WilliamHill will be following in early 2009. Shortly after WilliamHills announcement to switch over to iPoker rumors started going around that Cryptologic was looking to merge their poker network with PartyPoker as these two operators had already announced their plans to work together with online casino products.

However Cryptologic and BossMedia seems to have reached an agreement on merging their networks. This is certainly a good decision for all the poker players who play on these networks as they will now have more games available and it will increase the prize pools in poker tournaments they organize. Cryptologic poker brands include names such as Betsafe and Parbet, Boss Media is for example home of VirginPoker.

[source: marketwatch]