Its all good news for our online casino companies

As our regular readers will know, we like to keep abreast of any Irish casino news which we think may interest you, but in the absence of any new information relating specifically to our Irish online casinos, we will turn our attention to what is happening generally to the share prices of our main online casino operators. We have already commented on the recent boost to online casino share prices resulting from the possibility of an imminent relaxation of American online gambling laws, but last week also saw a significant increase in the stock market value of Playtech, the online casino software supplier. Stock market observers who take a specific interest in the fortunes of online gaming companies will know that Playtech have been involved in a joint venture with William Hill, which has not been particularly amicable of late, but Teddy Sagi the original founder of Playtech has now apparently increased his stake in the company to over 46% with the result that shares in Playtech rose by more than 5% last week. Clearly the stock market is looking to Mr Sagi to resume overall control of the company in the near future, so watch this space. It has also been reported that Bwin-party Digital Entertainment, another major player in the online casino business, is planning to float its payment division CQR in the near future. Bwin-party is a FTSE 250 quoted company, and its payments division is believed to process more than 2 billion euros a year. CQR also employs approximately 150 staff based in Britain and Austria, and any floatation is expected to be well received. Online gamblers who enjoy playing casino games with these online casinos may well also like to watch their share prices in what appears to be a bull market at present.