The poor stock market performance of a number of publicly traded online gaming companies has moved payment processor Skrill to postpone their plans for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) until further notice. Formerly known as Moneybookers, Skrill have undergone extensive rebranding over the past few months and has abandoned the plans because of “adverse IPO market conditions.” There are some brainy people left in the world! It comes after the much-publicized problems over at bwin.party, where shares lost around a third of their value following proposed changes to German gaming laws being announced last week. Their shares have shown signs of recovery today, as they rose by 1.8% to 137.70p, but it’s stark contrast to the 200- they were trading at only just over a week ago.
NetPlayTV released a trading update earlier today as they showed strong performance in the first quarter of 2011. In the first update since COO Guy Templer moved to PokerStars, the company will be encouraged by the results. The group saw active casino customers increase by 21.9% on Q4 2010, with new casino players up 14.9% percent on the same period. Mobile is where the most interesting developments occurred as the group announced that 22% of the new players acquired came through the Supercasino iPhone app. The app also accounted 12% of the active players using the site during the period.
Last but by no means least; Irish bookie Paddy Power is putting together a sponsorship deal for the foul-mouthed England soccer enigma Wayne Rooney. The striker has been shorn of a deal since Coca Cola ditched him last summer and Marketing Magazine report that a spokesperson for the bookie said, “No direct formal negotiations have been made, but there is an appetite for it at this end.” Watch this space!
