BWIN.PARTY: COMMENTS ON FULL TILT POKER

The bwin.party has ruled out a move for Full Tilt Poker because it is “too complicated to execute” according to CEO Jim Ryan. The company has revealed its strategy to return the declining poker business back to growth and develop into the “clear No 2 network” behind the Full Tilt acquirer PokerStars. Jim Rayan has said that, “We did in fact take a look at it. We looked at it in the early phases of the asset becoming available, and not that long ago we were re-invited to come back and take a look at the asset. Our assessment was it was too complicated to execute.”

The former chief of PartyGaming ahead of the 2011 merger with bwin has said, “At the time we were looking at it, the business had been shut down. Our analysis was that the brand was in decline, at that stage. Expectations were perhaps not where they ended up, and we had to deal with the Department of Justice, we would have to deal with gaming regulators. We were integrating bwin and Party and it became an issue of focus for us. So we passed for those reasons.”

He has paid a tribute to PokerStars for being able to manage to drag the complex transactions across the finish line, “We congratulate PokerStars for completing this. We think that transaction is nothing but fantastic, for the poker community, the poker consumers, and we think it will be very good news for the European poker market, as some of those missing dollars come back into the system.”

Jim Ryan has said that the groups goals is to create an environment from the merger of the poker business in which the recreational players and also those that play for a living can thrive.

 “What we are doing is seeking a balance, finding a formula that motivates the recreational player to come in and enjoy themselves and continue to deposit, and a balance that a shark will know, ‘My God, the bwin and Party environment just merged, it’s the clear No 2 network, there’s probably going to be a pretty good shot for me to go in there and make some money from playing’, but they perhaps won’t get as rich from bonus costs. So, motivate them through the liquidity as opposed to a return of revenue to them. That’s our plan and we are quite confident that will work.”

Ryan’s co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger has said that the joining of ParyPoker and bwin.player pools have taken the place of PartyPoker and have taken steps to rebalance the player pools in favor of casual players, such as the removing of high stakes tables above United States $5 or $10. They have amended the contracts with the affiliate operators and have driven large numbers of profitable players to the websites.

Norbert Teufelber said, “We had to go through this exercise before we merged liquidities, because otherwise the bwin players would have been eaten alive, as this is primarily a fish pond, so we had to rebalance it, as otherwise the liquidity merge would have been a disaster.”

The group has said that it has predicted the pooling of liquidity from its very own brands and partners in dot.com markets within countries like France and Italy to result in “30%-50% player liquidity”. In addition to the main brands, bwin.party provides poker in the country of France on behalf of PMU and Aviation Club de France, and also owns the local Italian operator Gioco Digitale. Liquidity in the dot.es market was pooled from June when the regulated market kicked off its business.

Source: CasinoChoice.co.uk