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PartyGaming shareholders cash in more chips

June 8th, 2006  |  Published in Business

The four main PartyGaming shareholders yesterday sold another 200m shares between them, which represented 5% of the company. Interestingly,the company’s founders Ruth Parasol and her husband Russ DeLeon were involved this time, rather than just director Anurag Dikshit and marketing boss, Vikrant Bhargava, both of whom had previously sold some of their stake in the company.

The group apparently tried to sell as much as 8% of the company, but were forced to sell less than that due to market volatility and a lack of interest in the shares. The share price dropped partly due to speculation that the main shareholders will try to sell more of their stake in the near future, although they will need to keep a majority stake until 2010 in order to receive lucrative tax breaks from the authorities in Gibraltar, where the company is based.

None of the four shareholders gave a reason for the sale and the suggestion that possible US legislation on online gambling was behind it were rejected. Their broker claimed that the group were looking for “portfolio diversification”.

Illegal internet gambling soars in the US

May 11th, 2006  |  Published in Business, Online Poker

According to this report on a survey done by the American Gaming Association, “just 19 per cent of US internet gamblers realise – or are willing to admit – that the activity is currently illegal”.

Interestingly, “more than half (55 per cent) believe online gaming companies find ways to cheat, and 46 per cent believe their fellow players cheat.”

It’s a fascinating report with enough pie charts and statistics to make your head spin.

PKR.com – New 3d Online Poker Site

March 31st, 2006  |  Published in Business, Online Poker, Software

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about a new British-based online poker room that’s due to open up in the next few months that is making bold claims about revolutionising online poker software. It’s called PKR.com and after a quick glance at the screenshots and the video trailer it’s obvious why the company are talking about a revolution. The in-game footage is very reminiscent of a couple of recent console games – WPT and Stacked. The 3d software looks jaw-droppingly good – perhaps even better than the aforementioned video games, so I’m looking forward to getting a chance to beta-test it soon. Last time I checked, their beta test signup is still open to anyone who wants to take part.

The obvious concern is that 3d poker software has been tried before, with limited success. I know Noble Poker tried it and eventually withdrew it, possibly because it was buggy, although it looked great. I should think that a broadband connection has to be a pre-requisite for the 3d views and even then, will the old problems of ‘lag’ with 3d online gaming become apparent too? It’ll be interesting to see. Given the people in charge, I’m sure they’re aware of this, but more on that later. It is apparently possible to choose camera angles around the table, so it’s perfectly possible to play just from an overhead view just like everywhere else.

Of course, just having great software isn’t going to be enough to make Pkr.com a success. They’ll need to attract large numbers of players, preferably bad players. After all, a poker site is only as good as the bad players it attracts. Reel in the fish and the sharks will follow as well. There was some scepticism on a recent 2+2 Forum thread, but I think this could be a real fish magnet. The cool software will draw in bad players and inexperienced players and it’ll bring in video gamers who may not have played online before. That leads me nicely on to mentioning some of the people behind Pkr.com, who have certainly come from the games industry.

There are some very interesting people involved in PKR, which makes me think they’ve got a good chance of succeeding with what they’re trying to do. First of all, there’s CEO Jez San, who has a long history in the video games industry, having written his first games for the Commodore 64 and Amiga while in his teens, before founding his own company Argonaut Games, and subsequently being involved with several software companies that have produced console and mobile games. (Thirty-something video game geeks like me may be interested to know that San was involved in developing the Super FX chip which allowed the then-revolutionary 3d scrolling shooter Star Fox to be released on the SuperNES). San eventually becoming the first person ever to be awarded an OBE for services to the computer game industry in 2002.

The company’s COO is Leon Walters, who I believe was the Executive Producer of SWAT: Global Strike Team which was a first-person shooter (in the Rainbow Six mould) released for Xbox and PS2 in 2003, which featured a very striking 3d game engine. Have you spotted the 3d game theme here yet?

Also involved as VP Marketing is Simon Prodger, former Product Marketing Manager of Victor Chandler Poker who as well as having the obvious experience with one the biggest British poker sites has also written a few articles about online poker himself, including here and here.

Overall, this is definitely a site I’ll be keeping an eye on. It’ll be very interesting to see how good the software is and how the company plan to position themselves in what is a very crowded marketplace.

UPDATE: There are rumours that Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly have signed up to represent PKR.com, although the PKR.com site hasn’t confirmed it yet.
[tags]online poker, pkr.com, poker software[/tags]

Roller skating naked across the poker table – the TV dilemma

December 24th, 2005  |  Published in Business, Live play

Given the current controversy over the WPT release form that several prominent pros (including Paul Phillips, Andy Bloch and Chris Ferguson) have declined to sign, thus ruling themselves out of playing in future WPT events, I was reminded of this post that I forgot to mention here at the time by Barny Boatman on the Hendon Mob website where he describes how a film crew actually interrupted a crucial hand he was playing at the EPT event in Dublin back in October:

It was early in the tournament and we still had around three quarters of the field, but I had got off to a flyer and with over 40K was probably chip leader. It seemed that all the big stacks were on my table with me. Perfect.

I was on the button in a re-raised pot holding AQ clubs and the flop came three rag clubs. The re-raiser led out rapidly for five thousand, a pot sized bet. I was obviously hoping he had a big hand, possibly kings. It’s normal to slow-play in this situation but I felt that if I moved in instantly his momentum would carry him forward, and, perhaps reading me for the bare Ace he might call quickly. I shoved my stack across the line and he sat forward. I can’t be sure but I, and others watching, felt I was about to get called. We’ll never know because as that moment one of the TV crew who was watching and obviously believed he was about to shove his chips in, said ‘ Stop! Don’t do anything yet. We’ll get the camera.’ The player froze and waited.

A minute or two later, with the camera in his face and the adrenaline replaced by the cold dread of defeat, he sat back and calmly tried to put me on a hand. A call would cost him his remaining twenty grand. ‘I don’t think you’d do that with the Ace of clubs’. He said. ‘You could have trips.’

After a long time, he mucked his overpair and the disappointed film crew shuffled off to get yet more footage that will never be aired.

Further illustrating his point that TV crews also have a responsibility to the game, Barny goes on to detail a conversation he once had with Barry Hearn (the well-known British sports promoter):

Years ago I was talking to Barry Hearn and he told me that he was thinking of filming the final of the Poker Million in the Isle of Mann, including hole cards, and broadcasting it live. I offered the opinion that players should be told of this before the event began as some might not want to enter if they knew their hole cards would be shown in the final. ‘Barny’ he said. ‘This is television. If I ask them to roller skate naked across the poker table, they’ll do it!’

Empire to sue Party

November 21st, 2005  |  Published in Business, Online Poker

Empire Online have announced this morning that they’ve broken off takeover negotiations with Party Gaming.

In a pretty scathing statement, the Empire directors say that they “intend to institute and vigorously pursue legal proceedings as soon as possible”.

I can understand the Empire directors being upset if Party are offering a lower price now that the Empire shares have dropped in value; especially when the shares dropped as a direct result of Party seeking to end the ‘skin’ deal the two companies had. Surely the Empire directors must have had a contingency plan if that happened though? They must have looked at the possibilty of moving onto the Prima or Cryptologic networks instead, if Party one day decided to pull the rug out.

So can we look forward to competitive sign-up and reload bonuses from Empire in the near future in order to build up their customer base? Fortunately for me, it’s one place I’ve never got around to playing at for some reason. Damn them! Am I doomed to a life of bonus whoring for the rest of my days?
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