Bodog, PartyGaming Like AOL Dial Up Business Warns Industry Observer
"If I were PartyGaming I would try to sell my database under the table to PokerStars," advised one leading online gambling industry analyst who wished not to be named. "They need to do this before that database becomes totally worthless."
He sees both Bodog and PartyGaming as having reached their peak and compares both companies with AOL dial up and Yahoo, both of which are seen as already having enjoyed their prime. AOL dial up is now considered a "dinosaur".
"They were behemoths but both companies got too arrogant, too big, and now they are going to have a tough time surviving."
This analysis comes in the wake of Bodog and PartyGaming announcing the layoff of a few hundred employees between them over the past three weeks. Two years ago, Party was the leading online poker room. Today it is having a tough time holding onto the number four position. Bodog was - and by most accounts, still is - the second biggest online sports betting company in terms of overall customers after Sportsbook.com. Their market share, however, is beginning to rapidly dwindle as Bodog has a tough time working with payment processors.
"None of us want to see Bodog go under," expressed Mickey Richardson, CEO of Bookmaker.com. "If all those customers come our way, we will likely have the same processing issues they are having."
Many industry observers agree that Bodog brought this on themselves. Last month, Forbes.com reported that several million dollars of Bodog's money had been seized by the US Government.
This summer, The New York Post reported that two of PartyGaming's founders were about to reach a billion dollar settlement with the US Government in an effort to ensure there would be no future prosecution against Party executives.
"The US Justice Department won't go near Ruth Parasol and her husband (Party co-founders) after that story came out," a close source with government connections told Gambling911.com. He believed that the source of that story came from within PartyGaming, not the US Government. "I think they (The Justice Department) were laughing after reading that one."
Both PartyGaming and Bodog have undergone significant management changes. Party left the US market in October 2006 following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, which essentially made it illegal for them to operate an online poker room catered to US citizens. Bodog is widely believed to be considering a similar move at the end of this football season, contingent upon whether they can fix their processing issues.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
