January 29th, 2005

By Matthew Garrahan

The appointment ofbanking advisers to explore"strategic options" at PartyGaming,a little-known Gibraltar-based company formerly known as iGlobalMedia, has important repercussions for the global online gaming industry.

Analysts say a float of PartyGaming could spark consolidation in what is one of the internet's few success stories.

It could also lead to other online gaming sites listing in London. Cassava, the owner of gambling sites such as 888.com, which sponsors the shirts of Middlesbrough football club, is also believed to be contemplating a London flotation.

Unlike web retailers such as Amazon and eBay that prospered in spite of the dotcom crash five years ago, there are few listed web gaming groups. This is because of the way online betting is viewed in the US. Unlike the UK, which is trying to establish itself as international hub for online betting operators following the implementation of the controversial gambling bill, the US continues to be hostile to the industry.

The decision by PartyGaming and Cassava to explore listings in London should be seen in a political context.

The US is the world's largest internet gaming market, but in spite of the popularity of a flutter on the web, the legality of online gaming there is unclear.

Online sports betting is illegal, although Sportingbet.com, the UK-listed group, takes bets from the UK. And while there is no explicit law against them, the US authorities take a dim view of casino-style betting and online poker.

Several US banks and banks with exposure to the US are known to have had talks with PartyGaming about its future plans. But there is a degree of political risk attached to any such bank working in the online gaming sector.

Some US publishers and media groups have been targeted by the authorities for running advertisements paid for by web gaming groups. Officials from the US attorney general's office have said internet gaming can encourage fraud, money laundering and underage wagering.

But while successive senators have tried to introduce legislation prohibiting online gaming, none has succeeded.

Sportingbet, the UK-listed sports betting operator, takes bets from the US. Since buying Paradise Poker last year its shares have soared, leading analysts to predict institutional investors may be prepared to forgo any wariness they had about investing in the sector.

Andrew Burnett, analyst with Numis Securities, says a significant change is under way, sparked by the flotation last spring of a company called Neteller, which operates online payment mechanisms used by gambling groups.

"[The Neteller float] was oversubscribed and came on a healthy multiple," says Mr Burnett. "But the vast majority of its business came from the North American market. That really indicated a sea-change in the way institutions were prepared to look at online gaming. When you take away the risk of prohibition what you are left with is an industry which is a truly wonderful investment story with stunning growth."

Mr Burnett adds that investors are excited about a new asset class.

He said: "It took Las Vegas 30 years to get from where it started to where it is today. This is the start of a virtual Las Vegas and I think ultimately online gaming will be a vast industry."

January 27th, 2005

Reuters

LONDON - The world's biggest online poker company, PartyGaming, will announce plans today for a possible flotation in London that could value the business at 3 billion pounds, the Times newspaper has reported.

The report said on Thursday the company had appointed Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Investec Securities to advise it on "strategic options."

Without citing sources, the Times said the company favours an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange some time this year.

But the report said PartyGaming would also consider other options, such as raising debt or seeking a merger partner. It said the company was launched in 2001 and accounts for more than half the global online poker market.

A separate report in the Financial Times newspaper said the flotation could be worth about 2.3 billion pounds.

The FT said the Gibraltar-based group, formerly known as iGlobalMedia, would be catapulted into the FTSE 100 index of leading UK shares.

January 25th, 2005

David Bianculli
New York Daily News

CELEBRITY POKER SHOWDOWN. Tonight at 8, Bravo.
Last year on HBO, Bill Maher joked that anyone who watched other people playing cards on television was in dire need of either a life or a drinking problem.

For me, though, Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" is its own brand of addiction - and one of the more effortlessly watchable shows on TV.

The series opens its fifth season tonight. In each two-hour show, five celebrities sit around a gaming table at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and play No Limit Texas Hold-'Em for charity. A winner is crowned each week for five weeks, after which the victors square off for a championship round.

What could be simpler? Or, as described, duller?

Three elements make "Celebrity Poker Showdown" so much fun. One is the placement of the in-table lipstick cameras, which permits viewers at home to peer at the hidden hole cards of each player. Another is co-host Phil Gordon, the poker expert who, with comic Dave Foley, provides running commentary and chip count as play proceeds.

The third element, though, is the true secret ingredient. This is one of the only shows on television on which celebrities can be seen unadorned and unprepared.

They're not promoting any project or working from any pre-interview outline - and eventually, as they fold and raise and joke and banter, playing the crowd as well as the cards, their true personalities emerge.

Tonight's opener features Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, fresh from ankle surgery and entering by wheelchair; Ray Romano and Brad Garrett of "Everybody Loves Raymond," who bait Schilling by sharing and wearing a New York Yankees cap, and two comic ladies, Catherine O'Hara of "SCTV" and Sara Rue of "Less Than Perfect."

Okay, so it's no Algonquin Round Table. But it's lots of fun, and tonight's show demonstrates perfectly the unpredictability of both poker and the players. All five take a turn as chip leader, and there are some runs of luck that have the crowd, and even Gordon, screaming in disbelief. One player wins two hands in a row, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat on the final (river) card and beating odds estimated by Gordon as "200 to 1 on both hands."

In addition to the poker, there's the banter.

"Who carried you for nine years?" Garrett asks Romano, one of a series of caustic one-liners aimed at all the other players.

"If I knew you were this funny," Romano says to Garrett, "I'd give you more lines on the show."

When Romano wins a big hand, he charges the front row of onlookers like a football player after a touchdown. When he loses one, he shuffles over slowly and bows his head, receiving sympathetic pats from several attractive female fans.

Rue plays it close to the vest, comically and strategically. O'Hara plays with giddy enthusiasm. And Schilling, who admits to playing Texas Hold-'Em exclusively on team flights, absorbs the anti-Red Sox jibes while seeking and finding the revealing "tells" of his fellow players.

"Celebrity Poker Showdown," as an entertaining television series, is the real deal.