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Hey, here are the latest [Follow="https://poker.bwin.com/"]online poker[/Follow] news from bwin:
Last week bwin and PartyGaming presented the details on the merger. Here are some quotes from press release along with my own personal comments:
Brands to be retained
“The online gaming industry is going through a phase of consolidation, making market players’ size and geographic diversification more crucial than ever,” explains Norbert Teufelberger, Co-CEO of bwin. The new company will operate worldwide with its existing brands under the name of bwin.party digital entertainment plc, in which current bwin shareholders are expected to hold 51.7 per cent of the shares and current PartyGaming shareholders 48.3 per cent. “Our products and target markets complement one another perfectly, and we can continue to expand our technology lead in all key product segments: sports betting, poker, casino, bingo and games,” according to Teufelberger.
Comment: Still, as far as I know, no decision has been made regarding poker clients etc. (I suspect this question will keep coming) There is still A LOT to be done before the merger is practically completed.
bwin.party digital entertainment will be the world’s largest publicly listed online gaming provider.
The merger plan presented by bwin Interactive Entertainment AG and PartyGaming Plc will create the world's largest publicly listed online gaming group – a group that will be ideally positioned to take advantage of the rapid consolidation of the online gaming industry and to open up new markets around the world.
Comment: It’s clearly beneficial to be a big company when pushing into new markets. I expect bwin.party to be one of the first brands in each new market that will open up.
Strong capital structure and customer liquidity
Like PartyGaming in the past, bwin.party will have its headquarters in Gibraltar and be listed on the London Stock Exchange. Besides a clear focus on B2C products, the company will also steadily expand its B2B and B2G business. “Our many years of online know-how, healthy balance sheet, and one of the largest pools of poker liquidity in any regulated market will make us an attractive business partner,” clarifies Teufelberger, who will head up the company as Co-CEO together with Jim Ryan, PartyGaming’s current CEO. The business operations of bwin in Austria will be retained, where a newly founded subsidiary, bwin Services AG will support selected areas of the group in Vienna.
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