Online Poker Black Friday Boosts PartyPoker Stock Price

bpty-lse-stock-graphAfter the recent US online poker Black Friday, Bwin/Partypoker’s stock (BPTY) is trading 30% up in the London Stock Exchange. At the time of writing PartyPoker’s stock is trading at £173 per share, a huge boost of Friday’s £131 close. The volume has also picked up and the stock seems promising for long term investors and position traders. Whatever happens between the US Department of Justice and rivals PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, US players will be looking for a trustworthy poker room to deposit their money. Question is though, whether they will still have their funds intact after FBI’s seizure of .com domains.

As a regular poker player for the last 5 or so years, I was one of those players that was surprised by the Black Friday’s unexpected events. Certainly the overwhelming poker boom would some day come to a halt, but no one could see that happening so soon and so harshly. If you are interested in my thoughts about online poker future and recent poker news, take a look at my personal blog where I wonder whether PokerStars will actually honor my recently won EPT Grand Final package to Spain, or a bit more information of online poker’s Black Friday in my Greek betting blog – although you’ll need to translate the pages via Google Translate I guess.

Regarding investing in an online poker room, PartyPoker’s stock seems the most logical recommendation. Party had left the US market back in 2006, while PokerStars and Full Tilt jumped in to fill the gap, ignoring the UIGEA and gambling law of USA. Things really picked up for them until Friday, when US DOJ took down their .com domains and forced them to block out US players, while closing 75 bank accounts. So, when online poker is regulated in USA, Party will have every right to come and claim their share, getting long now sounds a reasonable investment advice. Unless of course by the time this happens, another rival willing to take the risk welcomes Americans. However given the circumstance, the risk involved and the US DOJ actions, it would surely need a lot of courage for anyone to really trust another poker room.