Thread: WPT Buy First Step in U.S. Strategy for PartyGaming

New Brand Could Give Company Competitive Advantage if U.S. Laws Change

From the CAP News page:

August 27, 2009 (CAP Newswire) -- Since the announcement earlier this week that PartyGaming was set to acquire the World Poker Tour Enterprises brand, most analysts and observers within the online gambling industry have been speculating that the ambitious buy is clearly the company’s first step in a larger U.S.-based strategy. And PartyGaming isn’t denying that.

"Mergers and acquisitions are still very much a part of our strategy, we've been saying for several months that the industry is ripe for consolidation," a company spokesman was quoted in the U.K. news source The Independent.

"We have made no secret of our desire to enter the US as and when it is possible. At the moment there are no concrete plans as, for the most part, you can't currently provide internet gambling there," the spokesman added.

Its first U.S. deal since agreeing to pay a $105 million settlement to avoid prosecution under America’s byzantine online gambling laws, the acquisition of the WPT brand would give PartyGaming a significant market advantage if the U.S. gambling laws change -- which many suspect they are likely to do, eventually.

To read more at The Independent, please click here.