PartyGaming gave a very positive trading update at the end of last week. A company spokesman said overall revenues were up substantially due to the successful introduction of Blackjack in the pokerroom. Forty percent of all poker players are also playing Blackjack, a game with a higher profit margin for the house than multi-player Poker.
Following the trading update PartyGaming's share price rose 17 percent to 136.25p and another 1.83 percent to 138.75p the following day. PartyGaming floated earlier this year at 116p and rose quickly to over 170p in July. After a warning by PartyGaming's CEO Richard Segal that poker growth seemed to be slowing down shares fell sharply to well below the initial listing price.
Blackjack was added as an opt-in feature to the pokerroom in early October. Given the skeptical reactions in several of the main poker message boards, nobody could have anticipated that more than forty percent of all poker players would also start playing Blackjack. CEO Richard Segal commented: "This has totally transformed our casino business and has made it a very significant business overnight."
According to PartyGaming it's casino revenue is now seven times higher than it was before the introduction of Blackjack. PartyGaming plans to add two more casino games next year, as well as to implement a "shared purse" concept, where players can play all games from the same account.