888.com Game for Merger

In an interview with eGaming Review last week, CEO of 888 holdings, Gigi Levy, said it would be “highly likely” that the company would discuss the possibility of a merger with their competitors. The fact that PartyGaming and bwin recently announced their merger agreement may have been the cause for Levy’s statement, but he also added that any partnership would not affect 888’s current marketing tactics.

But Levy was keen to highlight that, even though the PartyGaming-bwin merger will have a much bigger presence than 888, the new company still won’t have a 10% market share: “We are talking about an entity which is significantly larger than us, but still is less than 10% of a very fragmented market. In that regard, I don’t see us changing anything in our strategy because of that.”

According to current statistics from Pokerscout.com, PartyGaming’s PartyPoker is the third most popular network online, with a seven-day average of 3,550 cash game players. However, Poker Stars with an average of 25,600 and Full Tilt Poker with 13,800 are way out in front. Even PartyGaming’s merger with bwin will only take them up to 5,900 daily cash game players. 888’s poker room, Pacific Poker, is ranked 15th, with less than 1,000.

Levy has no plans to approach any company for merger discussions just yet, though Ladbrokes is considered the most likely possibility. This operator has a very popular casino and sports betting site, but has fallen behind in the poker stakes.

Coincidentally, Levy’s comments were released on the same day as 888 Holdings’ second quarter financial results. Virtually all of it is sectors saw a decrease, except for bingo, which rose 70% after the company acquired Wink Bingo in December 2009.

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