On the 29th July, Bwin and PartyGaming have officially announced that they are about to merge, thus creating the largest online gambling company in the world.
Bwin, with its main headquarters in Austria, and PartyGaming, the company that owns PartyPoker, have been negotiating on a possible fusion since summer 2009. Although this year many sources have reported that the deal would never come off, the two giant companies have now announced that they have managed to agree on all details, signed the papers, and will be listed together on the London Stock Exchange.
With this fusion, the biggest gambling company in the world is born. Bwin has an estimated value of €1.4 billion and PartyGaming is worth around £1.1 billion.
In the newly merged business, Bwin will take a share of 51.64% and the remaining 48.36% will be owned by PartyGaming. From now on, the leaders of the two companies (Jim Ryan of PartyGaming and Norbert Teufelberger of Bwin) will control the company together, sharing the title of Co-Chief Executive Officer.
“This is a transformational opportunity for both our companies to create the world’s largest listed online gaming business,” Jim Ryan says, “With market leading positions in poker, sports betting, casino and games – in particular bingo – the new company will have a winning formula to exploit the growing online gaming market, supported by a strong balance sheet, significant cash flow generation and a highly experienced management team.”
“This merger of equals makes great strategic, operational and financial sense. We will be in pole position to capitalize on the wealth of opportunities that will flow from the continued evolution and expansion of the global online gaming industry,” said Norbert Teufelberger.
Norbert Teufelberger
Since the announcement, Bwin’s shares have seen an 18.72% rise in value, and PartyGaming’s are worth 18.95% more.
For the time being, poker players are not affected by the merge, and there will probably not be any change concerning Bwin and PartyPoker in the next 6-12 months, but later, the two poker rooms will form one network.
Viewing current traffic of the two sites, we can see that if the players of Bwin (owner of the Ongame Network) and PartyPoker would be playing at one network at the moment, there would be around six thousand players at the cash game tables.
Of course, with the legalization of American online poker this number could increase, as, according to current standings, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the two current market leaders would probably not be allowed to accept US players, which once again could strengthen fused undertaking.
