Party Gaming is going into sports

Party Gaming again clogged the British business media with its recent announcement to spend half a million pounds in expanding its influence into the sportsbook sector.
The announcement comes on the heals of the company's latest launch of backgammon. Additionally, the group is sponsoring this year's World Series of Poker – estimated at twenty million pounds.

The Guardian newspaper reported that Party Gaming is about to expand into the sports betting arena through several acquisitions. The acquisitions will be funded by the proceeds of a bond issue that could reach close to half a million pounds.
Rumor has it that the initial purchase will include a small European operator. This will be relatively low impact in terms of raising funds. It is assumed that talks have passed the preliminary stages and the results are expected by the end of the month. More deals are waiting in the wings – according to market sources.

New Chief Executive, Mitch Garber, reflected the company's commitment by raising such an enormous amount of funds. The company's share prices have continued to face constant battering by US conservative senators in Washington to ban or at minimum restrict online gambling in the United States. Nevertheless, over eighty percent of Party Gaming's clientele are located in American borders.
In an attempt to ease confrontations between the States and the company, Party Gaming has agreed to block bets emanating from the US. This is in line with anti-online gambling lobby. This is the same procedure taken by established sports betting companies including Ladbrokes. Nevertheless, Sportingbet continues to accept bets from America.

Media also reported that Party Gaming spent over twenty million dollars to gain the wall to wall coverage and exposure during the upcoming World Series of Poker to take place in Las Vegas next month.

The expansion into the realm of sports betting is a strategic move. However, while most sports fans turned on the telly this last month to catch the soccer, European poker operators reported a dip in the overall activity on their sites.

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