Backed By Porn Veterans, PartyGaming Goes Public

GIBRALTAR, Spain – Online gambling giant PartyGaming PLC has gone public, XBiz has learned. The 1990s veteran of the online gambling world is expected to receive one of the highest Initial Public Offerings seen in years on the London Stock Exchange.

Some analysts estimated prior to the IPO that the four principals in the company could cash in shares worth $1.4 billion, with stakes worth more than $6 billion at current valuations.

During its first day on the market, PartyGaming shares rose 11 percent and set off a flurry of speculation over whether U.S. gambling laws could possibly hinder the sustainability of one of the most wildly profitably online gambling companies in history.

While the company claims no holdings in the United States, the majority of its success has come from the U.S. gambling market through its flagship sites, PartyCasino.com and PartyPoker.com, the latter of which feeds a thriving demand for online poker that mostly originates in the United States

The online poker industry is expected to pull in revenue of around $6 billion yearly by 2009. That estimate is clearly reflected in PartyGaming’s own reported revenue, which surged from $9 million in 2002 to more than a half-billion by 2004.

Headquartered in Gibraltar, Spain, with servers in Canada, the company was founded in the early 1990s by Ruth Parasol, a lawyer and former business partners with her father, Richard Parasol, a San Francisco-based owner of massage parlors. Prior to founding PartyGaming, Parasol got her start in the industry through a phone sex partnership with Seth Warshavsky, an adult industry veteran who also owned the Internet Entertainment Group.

In 1997, Parasol launched a website called Starluck Casino based in the Caribbean that eventually gave way to a full-fledged online casino based on a proprietary program for casino games and a platform for players to compete against each other in large numbers over the Internet.

And while online gambling is not yet officially illegal in the U.S., company holders have cautiously danced around continued threats from lawmakers in certain states asking that it stop offerings its gambling services. One of the laws that U.S.-based attorney generals claim PartyGaming is breaking is the Interstate Wireline Act, a 1961 law that makes it illegal for anyone involved in the gambling business to use wire communication to transmit bets on "sporting events or contests." But so far, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld that the wire act does not prohibit Internet gambling on a game of chance.

No offering of PartyGaming shares will being made in the United States, although according to Reuters, PartyGaming priced its initial public offering at 116 pence ($2.12) per share, giving it a market value of 4.6 billion pounds and guaranteeing a place in the FTSE-100 index of blue-chip companies.

Shares of PartyGaming are expected to outpace those of mainstream companies such as British Airways and chemicals group ICI.

PartyGaming will trade under the ticker PRTY.L.

Copyright © 2024 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

Justices Alito, Thomas Invoke Victorian-Era Morality Law, Raising Censorship Concerns

Several national publications reported this week on widespread concern among Free Speech advocates after U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas repeatedly invoked during a hearing the infamous segregation-era law the Comstock Act, which was the cornerstone of U.S. censorship of sexual material from the 1870s until the 1970s.

Skinfluential Management's FansFuel Acquires Fanwire

Creator stats and affiliate marketing platform FansFuel has acquired creator account management tool Fanwire.

Nebraska AV Bill Moves Forward Despite Privacy, Free Speech Concerns

Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature has given first-round approval to LB 1092, the state’s version of the age verification bills being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists.

AEBN Celebrates 25th Anniversary

The Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network (AEBN) is celebrating its 25th year in business this week.

Performers in Meta Blacklisting Lawsuit Seek to Preserve Antitrust Claims

Adult Performance Artists Guild board officers Alana Evans, Kelly Pierce and Ruby have informed a California court that, although they want to drop their lawsuit claiming that Meta conspired with OnlyFans to blacklist rival premium fan platforms’ talent, they may still pursue antitrust claims in the future.

FSC, Co-Plaintiffs to Ask US Supreme Court to Review Constitutionality of Texas Age Verification Law

Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and its co-plaintiffs in the challenge to Texas’ controversial age verification law have petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to stay its recent decision upholding the law, because they intend to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to review the law’s constitutionality.

FSC Vows to Fight Florida Age Verification Law

Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has issued a statement vowing to continue fighting Florida’s new age verification law, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday as part of a comprehensive bill targeting minors’ use of social media.

Kansas Republican Aims to Create New Bureaucracy to 'Investigate' Porn Websites

Republican state legislators succeeded Monday in moving forward Kansas’ version of the age verification bills being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists, despite serious concerns raised by House Democrats about the cost of establishing a new bureaucracy tasked with investigating websites for pornographic content.

SK Intertainment Launches 'Skinfluential Management' Agency, FansFuel Joint Venture

Mr. Skin/Mr. Man parent company SK Intertainment has launched new creator agency Skinfluential Management, as well as a new joint venture with Showbizz Media's creator stats and affiliate marketing platform, FansFuel.

Industry Attorney, Free Speech Champion Clyde DeWitt Passes Away at 75

Noted industry attorney Clyde DeWitt passed away on Friday in Las Vegas at 75, according to friends and colleagues.

Show More