The shares in the online gaming company Bwin.party soared yesterday after the company confirmed rumours that they are in talks with “a number of interested parties regarding a variety of potential business combinations”.
Bwin.party, mostly known for their sportsbook and unique poker product, made the announcement after FT Alphaville had said that they believed that Bwin.party had been in talks with Amaya Gaming about a takeover at around 145p per share.
With the rumours and the confirmation from Bwin.party, the stock in the company rose to 120p a share, getting it back to the levels it were in the beginning of the year. The announcement send shock waves through the iGaming industry, as nobody expected Amaya Gaming to continue buying up gaming companies, after having bought the world’s biggest poker site Pokerstars as well as former giant Full Tilt for a massive $4.9 billion.
Furthermore Amaya Gaming already owns the Ongame Network, so buying up Bwin.party might be due to Pokerstars still not being accepted into the US regulated markets and they want to buy a company with a good brand in the US who is still accepted into the states.
While Bwin.party has not officially said that Amaya Gaming is one of the companies they are in the talks with, but it seems that Amaya might be about to buy out all the biggest competitors in the industry, giving them a sort of monopoly on online poker.