Mergers likely

As record profit announcements become the norm for online gaming organisations, speculation is mounting regarding potential mergers within the industry.

The growth in people playing poker online is good news for The City and financial institutions around the world; and technological advances have meant operators can rake in more and more cash as punters spend their money across different state-of-the-art gambling products.

Sportingbet PLC, the owners of Paradise Poker have racked up profits of £27m for the last quarter, and the daily rake on Paradise has more than doubled within the last six months. In addition the number of their players sitting down to play is up 12%, so new poker players are constantly joining and existing account holders are playing more often, and for more money.

With interest in online poker at a high, the bigger companies are looking to increase their market share, and smaller, private businesses are the target. The latest rumours surround Pokerstars, and Sportingbet are in the frame for an acquisition.

Sportingbet PLC chief executive Nigel Payne said: “I am delighted to report record profits for Sportingbet this quarter, a period in which the scale of the Group’s operations has again increased significantly.” He continued: “We have over 3.9m registered customers who placed 290m sports and gaming bets and played 339m games of poker.”

Matt Garrahan, Financial Times Leisure Industries Correspondent commented: "The online gaming sector is ripe for a period of consolidation. Operators are flush with cash while substantial cost-savings can be realised if companies get together at the right price. In addition, with companies such as PartyGaming and Sportingbet generating profits from cross-selling casino and poker games to their punters, there are benefits to be had in being part of a bigger company that has a more diverse range of products."

With this much cash sloshing around the prizes on offer at Paradise Poker are very impressive, and qualifying competitions for their Conquest of Paradise tournament, a live competition slated for May at Atlantis in the Bahamas, look particularly enticing.