by Admin
27. January 2010 12:37
Market Value of Combined Online Gambling Companies Would Surpass $4 Billion.
Austrian online gambling leader, bwin owns of Bwin Poker, and leading European online casino and poker site PartyGaming owners of PartyPoker, are indeed in talks regarding a possible merger, several news sources have recently confirmed.
The talks are, so far, just talks, and no guarantee of a combination that would create a gigantic online gambling company worth than $4 billion. Bwin executives have admitted to but downplayed the story. For its part, PartyGaming admitted the rumors were true, but also stated that it’s in such talks with “a number of companies”.
Though the companies downplay the rumors, they’ve persisted for some time now, and many in the industry are taking them seriously. The merger would completely transform the online gambling industry, especially in Europe.
"Europes online gambling market is the world’s largest, at $8.7 billion in 2009," write Zoe Schneeweiss and Jonathan Browning at Bloomberg.com. "No European gambling operator currently has a dominant position. Among publicly listed operators, Bwin has the largest European market share by revenue with 8 percent, followed by PartyGaming with 6.3 percent and William Hill Plc, the UKs second largest bookmaker, with 4.5 percent, according to Barclays Capital."
Both companies saw a significant share rise after the news was confirmed late last week. In related news, PartyGaming’s founder has agreed to sell off the last of his ownership stakes in the company, amounting to about £114 million in value.