A winning hand for the Party Gaming - Danske Spil partnership

The partnership makes Party Gaming Online Gaming Platform Provider for Danske Spil for the next 5 years. The terms of the agreement are not completely set yet. However the partnership marks a very important step in opening the casino and poker competition in Denmark. It also has all the ingredients necessary for being a success.

HC Madsen, chief executive at Danske Spil: "PartyGaming is definitely a strong business partner for Danske Spil. Combining [it] with Danske Spil’s unique and strong position in the Danish market with more than 500,000 Danish online customers will guarantee that together we will deliver a highly attractive customer experience."

For the last decade the Danish company enjoyed the protectionism of its government, which has forbidden all foreign gaming companies from entering the Danish market. This made this government supported monopoly one of the largest betting and gaming companies in Europe - over 500,000 registered customers and a reported turnover for 2008 of €1.47 billion (USD 2.13 billion).

However, this state supported monopoly angered the European Commission who claimed it caused the violation of free trade agreements within the EU. Under these pressures, the Danish government recently adapted their legislation and issued a draft legislation that should pass as a law in 2011.

Since Danske Spil wanted to be prepared for the upcoming competition, a partnership with a strong online company was a natural step to ensure their further success.

With powerful brands like PartyPoker, PartyCasino and PartyBets, Party Gaming generated revenues of $472.9m in 2008 and Clean EBITDA of $144.2m. Definitely an appealing list of arguments for the Danish monopoly.

But Party Gaming has good reasons to be happy as well. Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Officer: "This is a landmark B2B deal for PartyGaming and validates our strategy to become a leading provider of B2B services to both corporates and governments around the world. 

So, we’re all looking forward to see how the partnership will turn out and how will the competition will look like in the future Danish poker free market.