The European Betting industry has never been better an bigger. Unlike the United States where the main betting event is NFL Football for only 21 weeks a year and for only at most 16 games per week, European soccer is a year round sport with hundreds of games a week. A typical day may have as many as 50 games on a weekday. The excitement generated from this morning`s Champions League draw is enormous. The draw has pitted England`s best team ``Chelsea`` vs Spanish giants ``Barcelona``, the new year in Europe will only get brighter and bigger.

As an example of the growth of the European gambling industry, take a look at this breaking industry news from this morning:

Austrian-listed sportsbook BetandWin has agreed terms on the largest ever online gaming takeover after it announced it was to purchase Swedish poker operator and network Ongame for a total consideration of at least €474m (£322m or US$566m).

Ongame owns and operates its flagship poker site PokerRoom.com, as well as HoldemPoker.com and EuroPoker.com, and as of the end of November, had more than five million registered customers.

Completion of the transaction remains dependent on regulatory approval and Ongame achieving net revenues in 2005 of no less than €88m (£60m or US$105m.) The deal is expected to be completed within the first four months of 2006.

Manfred Bodner, co-chief executive of BetandWin, said: “We will of course address quickly how to best harmonise our combined marketing efforts while we study how most efficiently to combine our human and technical resources.”

As reported by eGaming Review last week when news of the discussions first broke, analysts had speculated on whether the proposed merger would see BetandWin - which has spent heavily on marketing – attempt to maintain a single brand through all its products.

The statement suggested that the acquisition presents major strategic advantages for the combined entity, including ownership of proprietary IT systems and a complementary regional focus. BetandWin’s core market is continental Europe while Ongame generates about 80% of its revenues from the US and Canada. The statement says cross-selling potential between the sports betting and poker offerings would also be enhanced by the merger.

Ongame chief executive Patrik Selin said: “We are happy to join a group that has demonstrated its capability to successfully grow and diversify its proven business model. Together we will have an increased capacity to further develop our leading positions in sports betting and poker, and expand our offerings, including our poker network, to third parties while launching global campaigns for our proprietary brands.”