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PartyGaming's Poker Revenue Drops while bwin’s Soars

Growth for PartyGaming in All Areas Bar Poker; All Go for Poker at bwin

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In a third quarter financial statement, Party Gaming reported a 9 percent growth in all products except poker in the three months to Sept. 30, 2010.

Poker revenue was down 5 percent from €31.3 million in the third quarter of 2009 to €29.6 million in the same period of 2010, while daily average players fell from 50,400 to 46,100. However yield per active player day was up by 3 percent to 7 in the third quarter of 2010 from 6.8 a year earlier.

The statement highlighted that although the dot.com poker market remained a challenge due to competition from US-facing sites, the company’s performance in France differed with average daily players on the increase every month since its launch.

Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Officer, said, “We have been encouraged by the strong start from our nascent French poker network that went live on 1 July 2010. A strong performance by PartyPoker in France has been further boosted by the launch of PMU’s poker business in France as well as services for AB Groupe and Aviation Club de France.

“I am also pleased to report that the proposed merger with bwin remains on track to complete at the end of Q1 2011, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals and I am delighted that Simon Duffy has agreed to become Chairman of the Enlarged Group on completion, as detailed in a separate press release issued today.”

bwin today released preliminary figures for the first nine months of 2010, which painted a different picture for poker. bwin’s poker gross gaming revenues were up 28 percent to €103.9 million from €81.1 million for the same period of 2009.

Poker revenue was also reported to be up 43.5 percent to 33.2 million in the third quarter of 2010 from 23.1 million a year earlier due to the acquisition of Gioco Digitale, the successful market launch in France, and the addition of Betfair to the Ongame poker network (a 100 percent-owned subsidiary of bwin). Excluding Gioco Digitale, poker still grew at bwin by 5.3 percent.