Bwin.party Shares Give Back Almost All of Their Post-"Black Friday" Gains

Published on June 17th, 2011 5:26 pm EST

In the hours and days after "Black Friday", many people agreed that Bwin.party (Bwin and PartyGaming) would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a crippled Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker.

In its last day of trading before "Black Friday", shares of bwin.party closed at 131.00 on the London Stock Exchange.

In its first day of trading after "Black Friday", shares of bwin.party predictably surged, opening at 171.33 and closing at 170.00.

Industry observers expected bwin.party to receive a bonanza of new business as worried players fled Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and UB/AP. Remember, there were rumors swirling after "Black Friday" that Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker would be going out of business within 48 hours. These rumors obviously proved to be false.

In addition, there was talk of a "level playing field" as Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker would no longer be able to pad their player bases with US players. After all, sites such as Party Poker pulled out of the US after the UIGEA was passed into law, and this created an enormous competitive advantage for Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker, as they decided to remain active in the US market.

The expected flood of players to sites such as Party Poker didn't really pan out. There was a predictable surge in traffic during the week immediately following "Black Friday", but the flood soon turned to a trickle.

Much to their credit, Pokerstars returned to "business as usual" shortly after "Black Friday", and were able to successfully reassure their non-US players that they weren't going anywhere. In addition, their quick handling of US player refunds also helped to win over the confidence of many online poker players. Suddenly Pokerstars was a safe place to play once again (in the minds of the average online poker player), and things quickly returned to normal. In the end, players want to play where the action is, and Pokerstars still has by far the largest player base in the world, even without US players.

Thanks in large part to the quick actions of Pokerstars post-"Black Friday", sites like Party Poker didn't receive the influx of new players that they had hoped for.

Since mid-April, shares of bwin.party have slowly given back almost all of the gains that were made in the first day of trading after "Black Friday". Shares of bwin.party (BPTY on the London Stock Exchange) closed today at 133.20.

In the end, "Black Friday" didn't quite have the impact (at least, not yet) that companies such as bwin.party were hoping for.

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Filed Under: Online Poker Rooms