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As world economies continue to slide downward, the trend has carried over into the finances of online poker companies as well. In its latest quarterly earnings report, PartyGaming Inc., once the world's largest online poker community and owners of Party Poker, showed lower profits, largely attributed to reduced poker revenue.
The dropoff is rather substantial as they are reporting a poker revenue decline of 15% for the quarter, which comes out to $65 million (US). There is some optimism at the company however as they recently re-launched their PartyPoker.com site and are hopeful the re-launch can invigorate this portion of the company's operation. Still publicly traded, PartyGaming remains quite viable and remain profitable posting $117 million in revenue in the report. Their strong online casino platform has apparently eased some of the sting of the poker profitability dropoff.
The mighty company peaked in 2006 when its market value reached an all-time high of $7 billion. Now, the number is somewhere between $400-$500 million. However, internally, optimism is at an all time high. With the changing of the guard of the US government, PartyGaming executives are optimistic that an Obama-led administration will be more open to discussing the re-opening of the US market, something that the outgoing Bush administration had not been open to considering. They also cite ongoing negotiations with the US Justice Department as reason to be optimistic as well.
With deep pockets, PartyGaming CEO Jim Ryan has been quoted as saying that the company is ready for a possible "transformational acquisition." What this means is that they expect the real possibility of a new round of mergers and acquisitions within the online gaming industry which could further ignite the market.
In addition to its optimism, PartyGaming has recently finalized a deal with a UK broadcasting company which would enhance its branded online gaming system outside of poker.
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source; www.aintluck.com
