The latest Irish online casino news concerns Bwin Party

Regular visitors to onlinecasino.ie will know that we do our best to inform our readers of any news regarding online casinos and their site operators which may be of interest. This month, in the absence of any significant Irish casino news we have decided to concentrate on the ongoing saga of who will eventually own the Bwin Party Digital Entertainment group. For those who don’t remember Bwin Party was formed four years ago with a merger of Party Gaming and Bwin, but the result was not entirely successful, certainly in the early years. Their latest financial statement in March was not particularly encouraging either, with a 6% drop in revenues and a 98 million euro pre-tax loss. Nevertheless the recent rise in the share price values the company at £930 million and there is apparently a potential bidding war in the offing. Initially the front runner appeared to be 888 Holdings, a well-known online casino operator with many casino games players in Ireland, but it now appears that GVC Holdings, the company behind Sportingbet and Casino Club have entered the race. Although GVC Holdings is a much smaller company there are reports that their bid will be backed by cash from Amaya Gaming Group, the Canadian owner of PokerStars. It has been clear for some time that the online casino and gambling sector is likely to be heading for a period of consolidation brought about by new regulations and a higher tax take in the UK and Europe, and there have been other potential deals recently reported. In fact 888 Holdings themselves were the target of an offer from William Hill but this £720 million bid was rejected amid some publicity by their largest shareholder as being too low. At the moment Bwin will only say that they expect takeover talks to be completed over the next few weeks will make an announcement in the near future.