Party Poker's Future Looks Bright

Online gaming group PartyGaming releases its annual report on 1 March 2007 and speculation is mounting that the news will be surprisingly good.

Now that Party Poker is no longer operating in the legally insecure landscape of the United States its business seems secure, and the third party payment issues currently affecting other US facing poker rooms seem a long way off.

For Party the future looks positively bright.

When the US Congress passed a law effectively banning online gaming in October 2006 it looked as if time had been called on the Party Poker empire. But in the months since Party has been quietly but steadily re-building, and when its annual report is released this March it is likely to paint a pretty picture.

The passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) on the 13th October led to Party Poker's immediate withdrawal from the US market, and the collapse of its parent company, PartyGaming's, share-price.

PartyPoker's player numbers were cut by half in the weeks following its withdrawal from the US, with peak figures falling from around the 13,000 mark to roughly 6000, while average player numbers also fell by over 50%.

But in the months that followed Party embarked on a period of acquisition and consolidation that appears to have dramatically changed its fortunes. And yet the transformation appears to have gone unnoticed.

Over the last few weeks player numbers on Party Poker have regularly been over the 10,000 mark, a 66 percent increase on figures from November. Meanwhile PartyGaming's shareprice remains at 32p, roughly the same price as in the immediate aftermath of the UIGEA. PartyGaming's shareprice was £1.11 on 20/8/2006.