PartyGaming Continues to Grow

PartyGaming, the publicly-traded online gaming site that's home to PartyPoker.com, PartyPoker.net, PartyBingo, PartyCasino, and PartyGammon, again reports that its revenues are up.

Revenues for the first six months of 2006 surged to $661.9 million, which is a 51 percent increase compared with the first half of 2005 ($437 million). The company also reported that it's achieving its goal to increase the number of customers outside of the United States.

During the first six months of 2005, only 14 percent of total revenue was generated from customers located outside the U.S.; this year, almost a quarter of the total revenue (23 percent) came from outside the U.S.

Online gaming sites are trying to diversify their customer bases because of the recent political climate in the U.S. Certain politicians and the federal government are working hard to stop online gambling here and a bill prohibiting online gambling will face Congress sometime this fall. The justice department has even started to arrest and charge CEOs of online sportsbooks.

In fact, despite PartyGaming's good financial news, its stocks on the London Stock Exchange dropped about 10 percent after news got out that Sportingbet Chairman Peter Dicks was detained by the U.S. government. Stocks fell from 117.25 pence to 105.75 pence.

But the report, like many of PartyGaming's recent quarterly reports, has noted record profits and amazing growth. Some of the highlights of PartyGaming's report for the first six months of 2006 include:

• Poker is still performing strongly. Revenue delivered by poker the first six months of 2006 grew by 22 percent. More than $502 million was brought in by poker so far this year. During the first six months of last year, poker brought in $412 million. About $2.9 million was earned by poker every day.
• Compared to 2005, PartyCasino has taken off. It generated 527 percent more money than last year. So far, $159.2 million was brought in from its casino site, compared to $25.4 million last year.
• PartyGaming revealed some business strategy in the report. The company wants to continue expanding its customer base outside the U.S., as well as introduce new games and products. Also, the company is looking to expand, and it will do that by buying other online sites.
• Up to now, all the games played on PartyGaming's platforms have been developed in house, but that's going to change. In the future, the report says a few games will be licensed through third parties. This will accelerate the pace at which new games could be added.
• As of June 30, more than 19 million people have registered at one of PartyGaming's sites. Last June, that number was 9 million. The first six months of 2006 brought in 519,532 new people, and 43 percent of those came from outside the U.S.

The financial report for the third quarter of this year is due out Oct. 20.

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