04/04/2011, Online casino

PartyGaming announced it has successfully completed merger talks with Bwin Interactive Entertainment, forming the 'bwin.party digital entertainment plc'. The new group has already began trading its shares on the London Stock Exchange, for £1.94 under the stock symbol BPTY.

The merger will see PartyGaming, one of the largest poker rooms worldwide, and Bwin, the world's largest sports-book, joining forces to become the world's largest publicly traded online gaming firm.

The new company, headquartered in Gibraltar, is 48.4% owned by the existing PartyGaming shareholders and 516% by Bwin shareholders.

“We are delighted that our merger is now complete so that we can start with the integration of our businesses and capturing the synergies we have already identified. As we make the transition from unregulated to regulated markets, we have an excellent opportunity to capitalize on our market-leading positions in sports betting, poker, casino, and games as well as bingo,” Norbert Teufelberger (bwin CEO since 2001) and Jim Ryan (Party Gaming’s CEO since 2008) said in a joint statement.

“This is a landmark day for the online gaming sector and bwin.party is now in a position to leverage its combined resources to take maximum advantage of regulating markets and the exciting opportunities in the real money gaming and digital entertainment sectors,” the New Chairman of the Board Simon Duffy added.