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UK
Casino Times
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News
22 May 2005
Gaming Chief Logs
On
One
of the leading figures in the traditional gaming industry,
Lord Leonard Steinberg, is to embrace the internet side of
the business by becoming chairman of Tradal, an online poker
group that is planning a £550m flotation.
Steinberg, 68, founder and
chairman of Stanley Leisure, the casino operator, will
become non-executive chairman of Tradal.
Last month, Tradal, which
runs Empire Poker, had appointed Numis, the stockbroker, to
work on a London stock-market listing. The flotation is
expected to take place next month.
Steinberg, a working peer
and fundraiser for the Conservative party, is one of the
most respected figures in the gambling industry. He started
out in the 1950s taking bets in his family's Belfast milk
bar and expanded Stanley into one of the industry's biggest
players with a chain of betting shops and
casinos.
Last week, Stanley sold
its bookmaking arm to rival William Hill for £504m,
leaving it to focus on its upmarket Mayfair casinos, which
include Crockfords, and a chain of regional
casinos.
Tradal is likely to be
valued at a discount to existing quoted online gambling
stocks such as Sportingbet when it makes its market debut.
One source with knowledge of the float plans said it would
be valued competitively. "It is being priced to go," said
the source.
Although it runs the
heavily promoted Empire Poker, Tradal's main business is
marketing and directing traffic to other gambling sites. It
is known to be a big provider of customers to Party Poker,
the world's leading poker site, which is planning its own
flotation this year.
Several online gambling
businesses are hoping to float on the London stock market.
Numis is known to be working with at least one other. It has
been appointed to advise Fireone, which runs an online
payment service for betting sites.
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