Online casino plans for London stock market listing
The stock market’s appetite for online gambling looked set to be tested again after it was reported today that a major casino operator was planning a £700m (€1.03bn) flotation in the next week.
888.com – the world’s largest internet casino operator in terms of visitor numbers – is reportedly aiming to make its debut in London next Thursday.
It comes just two months after poker firm PartyGaming made the London market’s biggest flotation since the dotcom boom, valuing it at around £5bn (€7.4bn).
According to the Financial Times, a listing would value 888.com at more than £700m (€1.03bn) , marking a major windfall for the two Israeli families that control around 90% of the firm.
Avi and Aharon Shaked are said to own about 70% of the company in a family trust, with the Ben-Yitzhak family holding around 20%.
Gibraltar-based 888.com, which operates Casino-on-Net, Reef Club Casino and Pacific Poker, generates most of its revenues through its casino games such as blackjack and roulette.
Casino-on-Net allows customers to play on a private table, a public table or on a group table with up to two friends, and players can communicate with each other during the game using a “chat box”.
The company has around 20 million registered members around the world and is run by former Ladbrokes director John Anderson.
Gaming stocks have been snapped up by investors in recent weeks despite concerns over the legality of online gambling in the United States. PartyGaming’s shares have risen considerably since its flotation in June to give it a market value of around £6.7bn (€9.9bn).
PartyGaming’s smaller rival Empire Online also floated on the Alternative Investment Market with a value of just over £500m (€7.37m) earlier in June.
Some analysts fear the introduction of legislation in the US that will prohibit online gambling.
Other threats to the industry come from intensifying competition which could weaken margins or the potential for online gambling to be a short-term fad.
It is estimated that 888.com generates annual profits of around £100m (€147m).
