PartyPoker.com parent's stock surges after IPO

Shares in online casino group PartyGaming surged on Monday after it completed the biggest London flotation in five years, taking its market value to about 5 billion pounds, or $9.1 billion.

The over-subscribed offer values PartyGaming higher than many British household names such as British Airways and chemicals group ICI, and is the country’s biggest flotation since Dimension Data floated for nearly $11 billion in July 2000, according to the stock exchange.

PartyGaming priced its initial public offering at $2.12 per share, giving a market value of $8.4 billion and guaranteeing a place in the FTSE-100 index of blue-chip UK companies.

Existing shareholders sold a 20.6 percent stake in the offering, which raised no money for the company itself.

Major beneficiaries include Anurag Dikshit, the group’s 34-year-old founder and operations director, who reduced his stake from around 40 percent to 32 percent, as well as other senior managers and staff.

Chief Executive Richard Segal told Reuters the group would target Europe and Australia as its main areas for growth, with Asia a “medium-plus-term” target.

Red hot poker
“The reason why we’re poker focused is that the group has had extraordinary success there ... as a result of that, our other products, casino and bingo, have been to a degree neglected,” he said in a telephone interview.

“We will now be driving those businesses hard going forward, and at the same time we have got plans to introduce new products starting next year,” added Segal, himself a keen poker player.

PartyGaming, formed in 1997, runs three main brands — PartyPoker, StarluckCasino and PartyBingo — and now has more than half the global online poker market.

Poker has become a big money-spinner for Internet gambling companies, which estimate the world Internet gambling market between $7 billion and $12 billion per year and with 20 percent annual growth.

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

The Gibraltar-licensed group has endured a bumpy ride to flotation, dogged by fears that it could lose its main market as the United States seeks to crack down on Internet gambling.

PartyGaming’s prospectus warned its directors risk jail if they travel to the United States, but industry analysts said the threat of legal action from the Justice Department was minimal.

“We had a marketing director there a couple of weeks ago, and it is not going to restrict my travel to the U.S.,” said Segal.

Analyst Greg Feehely at Altium Securities said there was minimal risk that online gambling would be banned.

“We’ve seen some anti-measure introduced every year for the past six years, not one of which has been a success,” he said.

But Henk Potts, investment manager at Barclays Stockbrokers, called the risk “considerable.”

“There will always be this black cloud hanging over them when more than 80 percent of their customers are potentially breaking the law by using their services,” he added.