Google Rumored to be Interested in Purchasing Party Poker

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Friday, September 13th, 2013 | Written by Stephen Smith

Despite a week filled with headaches brought on by glitches in a software update, reportedly there may be something interesting on the horizon for Gibraltar-based gaming company bwin.party, as the British tabloid The Daily Mail has suggested on its This Is Money blog that Google may be looking to purchase the firm.

Google said to be in favor of moving quickly

According to the blog post, Google is looking to act quickly to acquire bwin.party in advance of the launch of real-money online gambling in the state of New Jersey. Internet-based betting sites are expected to be up and running there by the end of November.

New Jersey’s iGaming law was signed by first-term Republican Governor and possible 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie back in February. The Governor said he was motivated to sign the bill into law in part by a need to stimulate the state’s struggling casino industry, which has been on the decline since peaking in 2006.

The new law, which will permit residents to access a comprehensive suite of online gambling options in addition to online poker, requires that companies seeking online gaming operating licenses be tied to a land-based casino property in the state’s gambling capitol of Atlantic City.

Come the launch of New Jersey iGaming, the payoff could be very big for bwin.party, being that the company has partnered with the Borgata in Atlantic City to offer New Jersey iGaming. The Borgata, one of the most luxurious hotels of the dozen located in Atlantic City, is partly owned by Boyd Gaming.

The Daily Mail reported that Google may be looking to pay 200p per share to acquire bwin.party.

Company has potential to win big in New Jersey iGaming

Being that online gambling in the United States has been largely unregulated until very recently, the market for online casino games and online poker in the U.S. has been for the most part untested. Despite its very short history in the United States, the online gambling market is expected by analysts to generate tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue for states that have legalized it.

The state of Nevada was both the first state to enact online wagering legislation, which it did back in 2011, and the first state to see a regulated real-money gambling site go live. The latter occurred back in April with the launch of Ultimate Poker, which remains to date the only operational online poker site accessible to Silver State residents.

In addition to New Jersey and Nevada, Delaware has also passed an online gambling bill, one that more closely resembles the New Jersey legislation in that it allows for casino games as well as poker.

Software problems have beset the site

And while bwin.party may have its eyes set on the future and the launch of the New Jersey Internet gambling market, the present day is a bit less rosy. Following a software update intended to make Party Poker more user-friendly, players have been plagued with troubles ranging from crashes for Windows 8 users to busted links to issues of freezing.

For its part, the company has assured players that it is aware of the issues affecting the software and they are working quickly to resolve them.

If the Google buyout rumors prove to be true, it could represent a turning point for the company. Its recent software-based woes have brought on more than just gripes from frustrated players; traffic to the site has dipped in recent day as well.

Then again, the Google takeover rumor could turn out as rumors so often do. That is to say, a rumor could just be a rumor.