Gaming Shares in Freefall !

[Karabiner]

Have Partygaming recovered art all ?

No - they fell a further 4p to £0.40 today. Luckily, the Founding Directors got out just in time, at about £1.10 I seem to recall...........

I ought to check my Ladbrokes share price too - hopefully, they will be pretty much immune.

I would imagine that they have gone up...

[Wardonkey]

Have Partygaming recovered art all ?

No - they fell a further 4p to £0.40 today. Luckily, the Founding Directors got out just in time, at about £1.10 I seem to recall...........

I ought to check my Ladbrokes share price too - hopefully, they will be pretty much immune.

I would imagine that they have gone up...

Why?

[Karabiner]

Have Partygaming recovered art all ?

No - they fell a further 4p to £0.40 today. Luckily, the Founding Directors got out just in time, at about £1.10 I seem to recall...........

I ought to check my Ladbrokes share price too - hopefully, they will be pretty much immune.

I would imagine that they have gone up...

Why?

Because they have no American account holders and are by default going to have a greater market share.

[Wardonkey]

A greater market share of a greatly reduced market....

[tikay]

A greater market share of a greatly reduced market....

No - Ladbrokes market - Europe - has not diminished at all, as I see it. Though it's gonna get much more competitive. But only a relatively small % of Ladbrokes profit derives fom online gaming.

[Wardonkey]

A greater market share of a greatly reduced market....

No - Ladbrokes market - Europe - has not diminished at all, as I see it. Though it's gonna get much more competitive. But only a relatively small % of Ladbrokes profit derives fom online gaming.

In that case it could be argued that Ladbrokes market share would diminish as other European sites take on the US customers that have been cut off by the larger poker sites.

[AlrightJack]

Indeed. Even for companies with no US customers (Hills, Lads, Betfair, Coral, Blue Square, etc) it cannot be seen as good news. For sites on networks, drops in liquidity will hinder European companies. For Ladbrokes, which is not on a network this wont affect them, but more competition from the big firms will.

[tikay]

A greater market share of a greatly reduced market....

No - Ladbrokes market - Europe - has not diminished at all, as I see it. Though it's gonna get much more competitive. But only a relatively small % of Ladbrokes profit derives fom online gaming.

In that case it could be argued that Ladbrokes market share would diminish as other European sites take on the US customers that have been cut off by the larger poker sites.

Well, I see that completely the other way round! If there are extra "disenfranchised customers" out there looking for a site, then the market Ladbrokes serves has increased, no?

But in any event, if those US customers are in the US of A, they are barred from all sites, anyway.

I just think that Ladbrokes, almost uniquely, (no network) but Wm Hill ditto, are as insulated against the after-shocks of this as any company in the game. Which is not to say outside the damage zone, but certainly not anywhere near the epicenter.

I'm confused.

But overall, I don't think the world is about to end - I can foresee plenty of positives.

In the entire history of history, every economic cycle  since economic cycles were discovered has boomed & peaked & then crashed. It's like forest fires. It's looks disastrous the next morning, but greater forces soon bring about recovery, the imbalances equal out, and as sure as water cannot flow uphill & God made little apples, all will soon be well.

I think.

[RED-DOG]

My cycle is very economical, but it crashed the other day, with me on it!

[Wardonkey]

At the moment there are a lots of uncertainties;

We don't know which sites will take US customers and we don't know if US customers will be able to fund their accounts easily.

I think that a lot of existing US players will find a way to play. Certainly the better players will try thier hardest to find a way to play. The concern I have is that we will have a great reduction in the numbers of new players. Essentially the games will have a higher proportion of skilled players and will be harder to beat.

I can't see any positives for any part of the industry. I don't however think that this is doomsday for internet poker.

There are enough players from outside the US to sustain the industry. There will always be enough money in the system and enough weak players for the professional to ply his trade. It might be that I have to settle for a slightly reduced income or change the way I work but I'm not too worried yet.

I'm just glad to be on this side of the pond.

[snoopy1239]

Don't forget that European only sites will be facing stiff competition from the big American guns ambushing Europe and taking their customers.

[tikay]

Don't forget that European only sites will be facing stiff competition from the big American guns ambushing Europe and taking their customers.

...and in doing so, offering better value for European players.

[marcro]

I thing that the market got it completely wrong in not applying a serious discount factor to the valuations of these companies considering that everybody knew that the US revenues were technically illegal.  The online poker sites can choose to model their business as a cash cow so I believe that any sites with a reasonable management team and adequate cash will stay in business and position themselves for future growth via expansion into Europe and Asia. 

The initial focus will most likely be on Europe so we will likely see more of a choice with regards to attractive tournaments at prime time for us.

I believe that the online poker industry will continue to grow.  The spending fueled by unrealistic market valuations by the US focused companies will have to stop and it will be a while before we see 8,000 people at the WSOP Main Event again.

[Karabiner]

I'm quite interested to see what happens to Full Tilt now as I was informed that they have invested a fortune and were only planning on reaching break-even point in 2010. Their shareholders must be seriously worried.

[byronkincaid]

I'm quite interested to see what happens to Full Tilt now as I was informed that they have invested a fortune and were only planning on reaching break-even point in 2010. Their shareholders must be seriously worried.

Not sure that much has changed, FT, UB, AP etc have stuck 2 fingers up at the US govt and are carrying on as normal. All the party players need somewhere to play now so it should be good for business. Aren't their shareholders mostly multimillionaire poker players anyway?