Party Gaming and Bwin Tie the Knot

Tuesday 3 August, 2010 17:12

This SlideShowPro photo gallery requires the Flash Player plugin and a web browser with JavaScript enabled.

Last Thursday saw the historic signing of one of the biggest mergers seen in the online gambling industry.

The merger between the Gibraltar basedParty Gaming and the Austrian Bwin Entertainment will see the creation of the largest publicly listed gaming company in a deal that is worth billions of dollars.

The question now on everybody's lips is how this merger will affect the rest of the industry on a world wide scale.

Will we be seeing more super-mergers of this kind? How will the smaller companies thrive against such giant entities in an already competitive market?

Groups such as Ladbrokes and William Hill have already stated their intentions to spend literally millions on improving their online brands in a bid to compete with the new Party Gaming/Bwin brand.

However, those who are not as strong as these groups may be finding themselves seeking their own merger agreements in order to create a stronger defense against these giants.

Don't miss...

Party Casino

"It will make it tough for us," admitted a source from Sportingbet, a younger and smaller rival in the industry. "The deal makes obvious strategic logic for them and the whole rationale for the merger is to strip out costs."

Other groups that could be targeted for takeover bids are 888.com and Betfair.

A spokesperson for Betfair said about the Party Gaming merger: "It is good news for us. Online betting is still seen as an outsider, a small part of the industry, but with this type of consolidation the online sector will have a much bigger player, which will give us all more of a voice."

The deal sees Bwin take on the role as majority shareholder in the deal with just over 51%, with both CEO's of the groups sharing the task as joint Chief Executives.

Featured Bonus

Currently in the News