blonde poker forum

http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/579367/breaking-news-partygaming-and-bwin-to-merge.thtml?utm_source=daily-snapshot&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily-snapshot

In a spooky piece of timing, yesterday, in "Online Poker Lag" I mentioned the fall-off in Online poker traffic & revenues globally, & the likely industry consolidation that surely must follow. (Source = EGamingReview)

Today, Party Gaming & BWin announced their wedding.

PS - Some years ago, when Party gaming's shares were languishing at about 17p, I said they'd be dear at half the price. They traded at 333p today.

PartyGaming and Bwin will merge to create the world’s largest listed egaming company, the firms announced to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) this morning.

The alliance will see Bwin become the majority shareholder with 51.64% of the newly merged business, while PartyGaming will own the remaining 48.36%. The company will be listed on the LSE. Bwin is currently the largest publicly listed egaming company with a market cap of around €1.4bn, while PartyGaming is second with a market cap of £1.1bn.

The merged company will have pro-forma 2009 net gaming revenue of €682m (£571m) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of €196m.

PartyGaming’s and Bwin’s share prices both rose following the announcement. PartyGaming shares climbed 30 per cent to 333p while bwin shares were up 12 per cent to €39.90.

Jim Ryan, chief executive of PartyGaming, and Norbert Teufelberger, co-chief executive of Bwin, will become co-chief executives of the merged company. Current Bwin co-chief executive Manfred Bodner will become a non-executive director on the board of the enlarged group.

There will be a balanced management structure for the merged company, with equal representation from PartyGaming and Bwin. Martin Weigold of PartyGaming will become the new merged company’s group finance director, while Joachim Baca of Bwin will become its chief operating officer.

Ryan said: “This is a transformational opportunity for both our companies to create the world's largest listed online gaming business. With market-leading positions in poker, sports betting, casino and games (in particular bingo), the enlarged group will have a winning formula to exploit the growing online gaming market, supported by a strong balance sheet, significant cashflow generation and a highly experienced management team.”

Teufelberger said: “This merger of equals makes great strategic, operational and financial sense.  We will be in pole position to capitalise on the wealth of opportunities that will flow from the continued evolution and expansion of the global online gaming industry.”
A merger between the two publically listed companies has long been rumoured. During PartyGaming’s strong fourth quarter results announcement in March, “active discussions” between the two companies were reported.

The merged company will continue to be based in Gibraltar. Upon the completion of the merger, which is expected to be in the first quarter of 2011, Bwin shares will be de-listed from the Vienna Stock Exchange and the shares in the combined entity will be listed on the LSE.

The deal has the backing of 28.5% of PartyGaming shareholders – founder shareholders Ruth Parasol and Russ DeLeon and CEO Jim Ryan – and 14.4 per cent of bwin’s existing share capital.

Accotrding to the same source, meanwhile, Poker Revenues at Rank (Blue Square & Grosvenor.com) etc tumbled an astonishing 41%.

"....Continued growth from Mecca Bingo and the relaunched Gcasino brand helped Rank Interactive post a 10% year-on-year rise in first-half revenue to £27.4m, from £24.9m
.
Operating profit from the online division however tumbled 23% to £2.3m for the six-months to 30 June 2010, from £3m for the same period last year.

Owner Rank Group said this reflected substantial investment in marketing and product development, as well as £0.3m of start-up costs in the Spanish and Italian markets.


Mecca Bingo revenue rose an impressive 20.7% to £19.8m, from £16.4m the previous year, driven by increased marketing investment, including the bingo site’s deal with Britain's Got Talent, a £0.7m TV advertising campaign, and improved cross-selling to customers from Mecca Bingo clubs.

The gaming operator said the MeccaBingo.com site will be relaunched in the second half of the year, following an extensive overhaul.

Casino revenue rose 25% from a low base of £2.4m, to £3.0m, as a result of cross-selling the online product to customers of Rank’s land-based G Casino and Grosvenor Casinos.

The World Cup-effect however failed to arrest the ongoing decline in revenues from the Blue Square sportsbook, which fell 18% year-on-year during the first-half of the year to £3.6m, from £4.4m. The group said this also reflected a reallocation of marketing spend away from Bluesq.com to MeccaBingo.com and GCasino.com.

There was also a near halving of revenue from poker revenue, which declined 41% to £1m, from £1.7m, which the group said reflected a reallocation of marketing support away from Bluesq.com to MeccaBingo.com and GCasino.com as well as a sector-wide reduction in online poker revenue....".
 

Old news...

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=49027.msg1213385#new

Probably best if I reproduce this one (same source) without further comment.

"....Sky Betting and Gaming has seen its annual gross margins rise 21% driven by strong growth in online gambling and a boom in mobile take-up, managing director Richard Flint exclusively told eGaming Review this morning, on the same day as parent company BSYB also announced its yearly results. 

Flint said that gross margins, after free bet costs, were up 21% to £58m from £48m, while profits had risen by 50% compared to the same period to the end of June last year. 

“The huge take-up in mobile, which has trebled in the last six months as well as our more efficient use of our marketing budget on Google, TV and online, has driven growth,” he said. 

“More than 80% of our growth is online, however mobile is now our second biggest channel overtaking interactive TV and our call centre. The iPhone has been massive. The ability to bet straight from our app on an iPhone has been very popular and allows players to get much closer to our content.” 

Almost 1.5 million people have downloaded the Sky Sports Score Centre app on the iPhone, the Sky Betting managing director said. 

He added a potential resurgence in interactive television could take place in the next 18 months as parent company and satellite TV group BskyB begins to roll out broadband-enabled set-top boxes to households across the UK. 

Sky Betting and Gaming runs five websites including Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, Sky Poker, Sky Bingo and Oddschecker....".

Old = slow. I am old. Anyway, I needed a vehicle to slude that bit of SP puff in.

I wonder if Betfair knew this was happening.

That wasn't frustrating...

Never mentioned this before but the single biggest reason for leaving the poker room  I worked for was that after a 3 year profit growth of 300% the poker budget for the next year was halved yet the target % profit increase doubled.

Net result was they poker profit fell away the next year(and the next) but the relocated marketing funds helped the casino and bingo to thrive.

They did a 1:10 stock split so that's effectively more like 17p to 33p. But still double your money!

Was just thinking that myself

PartyGaming, owner of PartyPoker.com, today announced its first half 2010 key performance indicators. Poker revenue fell 9.6 percent in the first six months of this year to €64.4 million compared to €71.2 million in the first six months of last year.

However the company more than compensated for this with strong performances in sports and casino helping drive total revenue up 30 percent to €181.2 million in the period compared to €139.9 million a year earlier.

CEO Jim Ryan, who recently reached agreement with bwin on merging the companies next year, said “While poker was impacted by the football World Cup and remained difficult from a competitive perspective, our other verticals continued to perform strongly.

“As previously announced, Clean EBITDA margins in the first half were slightly lower than expected due to the delayed launch of cash game poker in Italy but we retain our previous full year guidance of approximately 28%, subject to the returns achieved on planned marketing spend in both France and Italy where we are continuing to expand the share of our respective poker networks.”

Other key performance indicators for poker showed active player days declined to 2.5 million in the first half of 2010 from 3.9 million in the first half of 2009, daily average players in the same period fell to 13.8 million compared to 21.3 million, and new real money signups declined to 76,100 from 128,300.

Yield per active player increased to €14.5 from €13.4.

And Ladbrokes reported their Results yesterday.

In an otherwise half-decent set of results, Online Poker was far & away the class dunce.

Online Revenues were 15% down, & player numbers in the last 6 months a staggering 30% down.

The Results are easily available via google.

Further to Rich's comments on Party Gaming, there's a chilling analysis of Party Poker & Online Poker traffic trends here....

http://www.egrmagazine.com/blog/580407/online-poker-differentiate-or-die.thtml?utm_source=daily-snapshot&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily-snapshot

Don't forget 888 whose poker numbers were also down.

Party's numbers interestingly appear to be as much a factor of the type of player they are getting as the amount.

New player numbers were up on the same period.

It would be interesting to see how ipoker is doing.
Before they kicked us off I played a $1,500 gtd $16.50 entry comp most mornings with 120-140 runners.
I had a look at it yesterday,$500 gtd 42 runners.
Couldn't happen to a nicer company.

Correct. And Wm Hill, Blue Square, da de da.

"Inside Poker Business", which is a great & very well-informed read, suggests that the Networks are suffering even worse than standalones, as Margins are much thinner, as a result of slicing the cake three ways rather than two.

The (well-deserved) dominance of 'Stars over the market is also something to behold, & I doubt any regulated market would find that acceptable, certainly not the EC. 

The Online Poker landscape will be unrecognisable from now in a year or two.

As to Laddies, there is no way on earth the PLC will allow those declining numbers to continue. They'll find a way to arrest the trend (tough ask that) or sell the thing. Before 12 months are out.

On the upside, Laddies have returned to the Dividend List, happy days! I can't even recall how many I have, it's that long since I had a divi cheque from them.

See my comment on the Network's relative performance in my reply to Alun B. They are hurting big time - or, more correctly, their skins are. They are in some squeeze there.

This

Reckon we are going to see some major players die in the next two years and some others emerge and take over the industry.

Personal predictions are that Party and PKR will enter the US market and be huge, as will a facebook based poker site/app that launches a real money site. Rakeback and loyalty programmes will probably not be as generous as they once were across the board.

Blondepoker will get picked up by the BBC soap opera script department imo

Harrahs/WSOP will be the first IMO, their play money app beng the trojan horse.

Thank you, very kind of you to say so.

Ladbrokes has been trying to arrest the decline for years now. It's not a recent thing at all.

The online poker landscape depends massively on the shape of regulation both within Europe and in the US. If Germany goes the way of France liquidity in the dot com world will be hit hard for example.

As to Stars, I give you Tesco.

Ooh, I quite forget you are the Publisher of "Inside Poker Business"! It's the find of the year for me, mag-wise, & I've asked Suit-City next door to sort me out  a subscription for it. Depressing reading at the moment - I really never realised quite how severe the decline was - but a must-read.

Laddies - yes, it's a long-term decline, but they have new Management, & I don't see them allowing the decline to continue further - it just can't, it's harming the brand, which is a very fine brand. Of which Online Poker is a very small part.

As to 'Stars & Tesco. Tesco has about 35% (I think) of the UK Grocery Market, which is regulated, & has barely put a foot wrong in the last 20 years. 'Stars, largely un-regulated, are equally awesome, but remind me what % of the world's total Online poker market they have?*

* I note that they announced WCOOP numbers today. The Guarantees exceed $50 million!

Just the editor. Nothing as grand as publisher. Thanks very much for the positive feedback though, and it's great to hear you like it. PM me your address and I will get you added to the free list.

Agreed on Ladbrokes on all points. The new CEO has announced he wants Ladbrokes to have 'e excellence' so expect a greater focus on the online part of the business. Rebuilding a poker business though is no easy challenge in this market.

Point taken on Stars. Although it's hard to say exactly what its market share is, based on pokerscout it's still less than 50%. I was also alluding to how Tesco's seemingly runaway market dominance eventually started to run out of steam.

Thanks - PM on way!

I'm not sure Tesco has run out of steam, though I agree it's running out of headroom, & regulatory issues will stunt further UK growth. Stars may run out of steam, too, but without a shadow of doubt, many rooms - I'd say the majority - will be out of business, (more so the Networked Skins & even networks) or consolidated - long before that happens. And even 'Stars are starting to have to address regulation - note the Italian model, now France, Gemany soon.......

The odd thing is that Stars won't need to buy any/many Rooms, there would be little point, as almost everyone has a Stars account. Why buy Accounts you already have?! And not many rooms can hold a light to Stars Marketing, Promos, & general excellence.

Yep, this is probably one of the reasons why the average rake at Party has gone down over the last few years so dramatically, people try new rooms, then realise they are better off at Pokerstars. So many times I have seen a new room and said 'wow this room is soft' or 'wow the rakeback here is awesome' then a couple of weeks later I am back playing on Stars and Tilt.

Played on Ladbrokes before there a joke tbh the software is horrendous,Stars and Tilt will own the world soon enough I'd guess

Playtech, the Israeli-based owner of the iPoker network, saw poker revenue decline 8 percent to €15.8 million in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period of 2009 when it was €17.3 million.

The most recent figure is also down 5 percent on the previous six months, July to December 2009, when it stood at €16.6 million.

Poker makes up 18 percent of Playtech’s gross income compared to 56 percent for casino, 5 pecent bingo, William Hill Online 17 percent and other 4 percent.

The company, which also operates casino and bingo products, saw gross income up 31 percent to €87.9 million.

wow, Blonde leaving hit them hard

Hit us worse, lol.


Nice to know the pain is shared though

Stars are genius. They figured out the right type of customer to attract. Punters who are happy to do $100 - $500 a month and win sometimes and aren't bothered about rakeback, they just want a good game with big prizes. Every one else can go after the players chasing a living and have their games suffocated.

And at the same time giving the big grinders supernova elite, great customer service and superb multi tabling software. Yep, they are very clever chappies.

Meanwhile, as the race to consolidate continues, "Victory Poker" (is that the Site which Evander Holyfield represents?) have announced they are leaving Everleaf Gaming & throwing in their lot with Cake Network.

The douschiest site around really. They have an advert somewhere on Youtube where two of their 'pros', while in Asia, pay a homeless kid a few hundred bucks to streak across a road.

Really? Thats awful. I was just begining to think how douschey they are with their girl girl girl prop bet prop bet girl girl girl marketing strategy, it made me think yesterday "there will be thousands of poker players who love this but then go play on Stars/Tilt anyway"

The Holyfield site is Real Deal Poker, which are the site that shuffle a real live deck rather than use an RNG. imo a very bad idea and actually bad for the integrity of the game as a whole because most of their marketing implies the rest of online poker is rigged.

Neither site have many customers, who would have thought good software, service, loyalty perks and guarantees would be what poker players want?

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-WF5nMuwQw

[ ] Homeless man
[X] Their Drug Dealer

Blanca Games, Inc. has announced its acquisition of the Cereus Poker Network which includes Absolute Poker  and UB.com.

The terms of the acquisition have not been released, but the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has given Blanca the green light to complete the deal and begin operating the Cereus Poker Network.

Chief Executive Officer of Blanca Games, Stuart Gordon, said, "From our perspective, we have acquired a large, sophisticated online gaming operation with state-of-the art capabilities, ranging from compliance to business intelligence to online marketing to customer service. We see a tremendous growth opportunity in this deal and beyond, as Blanca seeks additional acquisitions in the market.

“We expect no changes in the playing experience on the Cereus sites, except for the improvements that will likely be the long-term result of this transaction… We intend to leverage the existing strengths of the Cereus Poker Network, particularly in the areas of security and customer service. Although we are impressed with many of the new security features on the Network today, security is and will remain our top priority.

“We’re also pleased with the efficiency and the player-friendly approach of Cereus’s customer service operation, but we will always be seeking to improve in this area.”

lol think trigg had some first hand experience with this last night

Blanca seems to be a brand new company (unless its the people behind the popular green streetfighter character) and nothing else on the network has changed, so imo its easy some sort of fiddle job or a weak attempt at rebranding to shake off the superuser thing.

"......The company, which operates Ladbrokes Poker, said, “Poker continues to be impacted by the industry-wide issues regarding liquidity in Europe compared to US facing sites and net revenue was down 27% over the prior period.......”

Good grief!  They just will not allow that to continue much longer. An early exit beckons for Ladbrokes Poker, presumably.

I wonder what the YoY % decline across the i-Poker portfolio is now?

Industry-wide, Online gambling & gaming is showing massive revenue increases right across the board, with "Casino" & Betting showing phenonomal traffic & revenue uplifts, & "Mobile" is feeding that fire, but Online Poker is where the pain is, with just a few exceptions.   

This old chestnut floated to the surface again yesterday......

Ladbrokes confirms talks with 888 despite fears over US 'poison pill'!

SHARES in online gambling group 888 surged yesterday after it confirmed it was in talks with Ladbrokes over a possible takeover by Britain's largest bookmaker.
Both companies confirmed they were in very preliminary discussions, but spokesmen said they had nothing to add.

The two companies held talks four years ago, but these were aborted because of Ladbrokes's concerns over the threat of possible retrosADVERTISEMENTpective legal action in relation to 888's activities in the United States before the online gaming industry was outlawed in that country in 2006.

Online gaming rivals such as PartyGaming and Sportingbet have reached settlement with the US department of justice to give them immunity from prosecution, but 888 has not so far done so.

Industry executives and City analysts said this could still scupper a takeover this time. "This may be a barrier to a bid," Richard Taylor, leisure specialist at Liberum Capital, said.

An online gambling industry executive said: "The deal does make sense from Ladbrokes's viewpoint because the 888 platforms are good. It would be a case of Ladbrokes gaining proven technology.

"But the financial difficulty about a bid is what does Ladbrokes value the 888 shares at as the company has not yet settled with the department of justice? It is an overhang on a deal that otherwise probably makes quite a bit of sense."

Shares in 888, which had lost two-thirds of their value since January, closed up 18 per cent or 8.75p at 57.75p.

Simon Davies, an analyst with Collins Stewart, said a price of 70p would probably be well received by 888 shareholders, but also expressed concerns over the spectre of American litigation.

"We believe a 70p offer should be a slam dunk for (888] investors, but see significant regulatory risk to a successful transaction given that 888 has not procured a non-prosecution agreement with the US department of justice, which represents a potential poison pill," Davies said.

The latest potential deal in the online gambling sector follows the merger of PartyGaming with bwin in August, and would represent the first inorganic corporate activity by new Ladbrokes chief executive Richard Glynn, who took over last spring.

Analysts said a deal made sense strategically, marrying Ladbrokes's strong betting shop business with 888's casino offering. It would create a combined online gambling business with annual revenue of £350m and earnings of £85m.

It is believed the two companies could save about £25m a year in shared technology, marketing and overhead costs, analysts said.

times are tough

Swedish gaming operator Entraction saw its online poker network revenue (gaming surplus) decline 27 percent in 2010 to SEK316.4 million (€35.8 million) from SEK435.7 million (€49.3 million) in 2009.

Revenue dropped 24 percent to SEK81.7 million from SEK106.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The company’s annual report stated that, “The growth of the poker market in Europe has stagnated primarily because revenue per player decreases. Entraction is therefore working to develop a new loyalty program designed to attract new recreational players, and increase and prolong the activity of these. The 4th quarter saw an increase in liquidity in the poker network, which also had a positive effect on poker turnover of turnkey customers.”

The number of registered players at the end of 2010 was 3.9 million, an increase of 100 percent on 2009. The number of active players during the fourth quarter was 165,825 (146,158), an increase of 13 percent on 2009.

During 2010 the company signed up Victor Chandler Poker as a client and Paradise Poker’s Canadian players also joined the network.

Sportingbet Plc has issued its financial results for the first six months of its 2010/11 financial year ending January 31, 2011.

Net poker revenue in the second quarter (Nov. to Jan. 2011) at its online poker business Paradise Poker was down 36 percent to £3.6 million compared to £5.6 million in the same period last year.

The company said the was as a result of, “economic conditions [which] affected our players and our product has proved uncompetitive compared to the poker sites that still accept US based players.”

“The poker market remains challenging as the environment is very competitive due to the large US-facing companies continuing to utilise their significant US cash flows and high liquidity to aggressively target the European region.”

In the six months to end Jan. 2011 net poker revenue dropped to £9.8 million to £7.1 million year earlier.

How much did Sportingbet pay for Paradise?

To answer my own question.. $300 million!

At this rate they might get their money back by 2100!

$298m

I believe that this is more significant than the Party/bwin merger. These guys have very strong US connections and deep pockets. They will be market leaders within three years. This is also great news for poker as it brings in a strong corporation that will lobby for the US to go legal. The timing is also significant considering the recent US actions.

And also its good for you, as you clearly work for them?  ;)

Oh maybe not, just looked like it as u only had two posts, but the first one is from ages ago

(do u work for them?)

No I don't

We handle most of the poker sites event management. We run the logistics for the WPT and are running the new GSOP tour. We also handle all of the networks WSOP buy ins. So at some time most poker players have be handled by us if they have been at an event.

The reason I am pleased about IGT is it opens up the chance of the US going legal quicker and will bring in much needed revenue to poker.

Poker News

IGT to Buy Entraction

According to a press release, International Game Technology (IGT) has extended an offer to buy all outstanding shares of Entraction Holding. The bid is approximately $115 million, or $11.11 per share.

"This transaction represents a fantastic opportunity for our employees, customers, and shareholders alike," Peter Astrom, President and CEO of Entraction said. "Entraction will be able to utilize IGT's global scale and distribution to advance our short and long term objectives in exciting, new ways and we look forward to joining the IGT team."

Astrom will continue his role as CEO and president of Entraction, but will report directly to CEO and president of IGT, Patti Hart. The offer is projected to close during IGT's current fiscal year.

"The addition of Entraction advances IGT's position in legalized Interactive gaming markets," Hart said. "It strengthens our interactive portfolio by adding poker, bingo, casino, and sports betting. This combination will drive enhanced value for our global customers and partners. We are also thrilled to welcome the Entraction team as the newest members of the IGT family.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1bd8b922-9d8d-11e0-9a70-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1Q6VWsvWM

Sportingbet’s shares rose sharply after the online gambling company revealed it had received a “highly preliminary” approach from Ladbrokes.

A statement from Sportingbet said the approach from the UK bookmaker “may or may not lead to an offer being made”. Shares rose by 19 per cent and at midday on Thursday were at 49p, up more than 15 per cent.

Rank Group, the publicly listed owner of Grosvenor Casinos and Blue Square Poker, is likely to be sold after the board reluctantly said shareholder should accept the advances of Gouco Group.

Earlier the board had resisted the takeover and advised shareholders against accepting an offer from Gouco.

The board believes the Gouco significantly undervalues the business and the 150 pence offer was only 0.8 percent above the share price at the time of the offer.

The board warned shareholders that Gouco could be free to cancel Rank’s public listing but the Hong Kong-based company said they would like to keep Rank in the public domain, stating, “In the event that the FSA[Financial Services Authority] determined otherwise, Guoco would explore with the FSA ways in which the necessary percentage of shares in public hands could be restored over a reasonable period of time … so far as commercially reasonable."

I dont  know if it is OK to post this link but Howard Lederer was spotted at last...also the new on line gaming bill makes for interesting reading

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/06/the-nightly-turbo-howard-lederer-talks-pokerstars-big-game-10607.htm

So we have Rank up for sale Ladbrokes and Sportingbet in talks, Entraction with new owners and On line in the US likely to move quicker than many predicted. All in three months !

The WSOP is pulling in record numbers and there are several more poker tours planned, I think the next three months will be just as interesting.

The board of Rank Group Plc, owner of Grosvenor Casinos and Blue Square Poker, has changed its mind about the proposed sale of the Group to Hong Kong-based Guoco.

Last week the board reluctantly urged shareholders to accept the offer of 150 pence, even though they believe it greatly undervalued the group.

However today the board did a u-turn recommending that shareholders reject the offer providing they aren’t worried about Guoco canceling Rank’s stock listing.

Rank is concerned that Guoco will not give an unconditional commitment to continue its stock market listing.

bwin.party digital entertainment today said it had started the process of selling the Ongame poker network.

The company, formed by a merger of bwin and PartyGaming earlier this year, described Ongame as a “surplus asset”. bwin poker players are expected to be moved to Party Poker ahead of the sale.

The statement from bwin.party regarding the proposed sale said, "One area of our stated strategy was to recycle surplus assets. As part of this process and having taken some initial soundings from interested parties, we have commenced a formal process to sell Ongame’s Business-to-Business operation that is one of the world’s leading online poker networks with a state-of-the-art technology platform. We expect that any sale will be completed by the end of the year.

Ongame hopees to emulate Sweden’s Entraction network which was sold for €70 million to International Game Technology last month.
 

Should have got Dom on it, at least he would have gotten in his face a bit.

don't get done, get Dom.