After facing many obstacles with them, Playtech has finally parted way with their broker, Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank resigned its position as Playtech’s broker, and because of this, Playtech will be unable to join London’s main stock market.

As a result of this move, Playtech’s stock took a big hit, and knocked down to 13p at 239p. While Playtech tries to regain their bearings, they have released a statement that says “with immediate effect Collins Stewart Europe Limited is the Company’s sole broker and NOMAD.” It looks like Playtech is trying to send out the message that they are in control, and they aren’t lost without their former broker.

Roger Withers, Chairman at Deutsche Bank, said there was no fight, and the big issue was that Playtech and Deutsche Bank grew apart. This was likely due to the fact that when Mumtaz Naseem left in the summer, relations went south.

Despite this setback, Playtech is still in top form, and has regularly been releasing new games, making deals, creating partnerships, and making games that online casino operators and players love. Players can still enjoy Playtech’s great games, and they will soon be out with new games for players to enjoy for the next little while.

Over the course of 2010, 12% of the online gambling industry has grown. At almost $30 billion dollars, the online gambling industry has been doing well and showing improvement. 12% in this case, is a small number, but substantial, especially considering it’s only a year’s worth of growth.

A new report published by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants states this growth of 2010’s online gambling industry at 12%. The numbers being reported by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants are not proof of the financial figures that support their 12% gain in the online gambling industry. For the past 2 years, the online gambling industry has shown signs of improvement in all areas of the industry, which may have contributed to this 12% gain that is being reported.

The online gambling industry is now worth $29.3 billion, according to the new report by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants. Areas like sportsbetting, online casino, online poker and online bingo were assessed for this report. Sportsbetting accounts for 41%, while online casinos and online poker websites account for 46%. Online bingo contributed a surprising $1.3 billion towards that $29.3 billion in 2010.

It is predicted that over the next three years, the online gambling industry is going to continually generate billions, hitting the $40 billion mark within that period of time.

2010 saw many countries start regulating their online gambling markets and also lifting bans, which may have contributed to this %12 gain. So far this year, this trend has continued.

A new report out states that the global online gambling industry is worth close to £15 billion as of last year and with the rise in mobile applications which allow smart phone users to take advantage of online poker and other games, that number is only expected to rise.

Global Betting & Gaming Consultants (GBGC) was the company that conducted the survey and the CEO was recently interviewed and was understandably excited about all the different prospects for online gambling worldwide. He mentioned the fact that in Europe there are two countries, France and Italy, that have just come on board and another seven that are putting forward legislation in 2011 to become part of the online gambling community.

Online gambling has been steadily growing in popularity and in 2007 it accounted for 5.7% of the overall gambling market, but those numbers are expected to rise to 9.4% by the year 2012. Warwick Bartlett, GBGC’s CEO, says that some nation’s focus on the problems associated with addictive behavior in online gambling are generally unfounded. He mentions that alcohol related deaths account for a much bigger problem in countries like the United Kingdom than online poker or any other online gambling game.

PartyGaming is negotiating to band together with leading land-based casino companies, Boyd Gaming, Las Vegas Sands, MGM and Caesars in an effort to reintroduce itself to the American online gambling market.

Many international online companies were forced to retreat from competing in the American market with the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006. PartyGaming was specifically targeted with a lawsuit in the State of Kentucky for providing its online games to players in that region.

Recent online gambling bills in states such as New Jersey will make it illegal for players to access gaming sites that are not based in Atlantic City. Efforts by American gaming associations to focus their energies on regulating and legalizing online gambling at the state level may force other states to adopt legislation similar to that of New Jersey.

In order to avoid violating federal gambling laws in the meantime, international companies may be forced to join forces with American land-based companies as the only way to legitimately re-enter the market.

Given that the U.S. online gambling market is cited as second only to the UK and estimated to be worth billions of dollars annually, this may be incentive enough for PartyGaming, the world’s major online gaming company, to join the club.

The online gambling industry is still a bit rocky, as operators continue to struggle to recover from the global economic crisis. PlayTech is one of the few operators that is seeing improved profits in the online gambling sector, thanks to the company’s expansion into the American online gambling market.

According to a recent report, PlayTech saw an impressive profit increase over the last quarter of 2010, as revenue increased from 14% to 21%. The biggest contributors to this growth seemed to be PlayTech’s online poker and online bingo divisions. These two markets have become increasingly popular over the past year, and PlayTech is certainly taking advantage of the plentiful opportunities within them.

PlayTech’s profits seem to have also been helped by its expansion into the American market. The company has been careful not to violate any current laws in the country, but it has managed to maintain a profitable presence by helping run state lotteries.

Because of this, PlayTech is likely to be favoured when the American online gambling market is legalized (which many politicians are hoping will happen this year). Once this happens, PlayTech will continue on its financial upswing into 2012 and beyond.

Ever since the French gambling market opened its doors to international operators, online casinos have been pushing and shoving their way to get into the country. Dozens of online casinos were granted online gambling licenses earlier in the year, and now Unibet has just become the latest operator to enter France’s market.

UniBet was a popular operator in France before the country began prohibiting international companies from offering their services to players. However, when the country did enact its monopoly, UniBet was kicked out and was not allowed to re enter until the EU required France to change its laws. It has been a long process, but UniBet is finally back in France’s online gambling market.

Industry insiders believe that UniBet will do well in the coming months. Because the company had such a big, successful presence in France’s online gambling industry before, it is believed that the operator will regain its old players and continue to thrive the way it did before the online gambling ban was enacted. In the future, we can expect to see big things from Unibet in France’s newly-regulated online gambling market.

A recent report by iGaming Business as stated that the online gambling industry is only expected to grow in the future. It has been on a steady incline for the past decade and shows no signs of slowly down, according to the online gaming publication.

Although there was a downswing last year due to the global recession, this year has seen a great deal of growth. As the recession continues to come to close, an increasing number of gambling fans now have more disposable income available. They can now spend their money more freely, and online gambling gives them the opportunity to do so.

Currently, the online gambling industry is worth about $4.7 billion, but by the end of the 2014, it is expected to nearly double to about $7 billion worldwide.

Social networking is the key to the growth of the online gambling industry. More and more casino operators are using websites like Facebook and Twitter to solicit new customers and maintain relationships with existing players. It is important that operators take advantage of the vast opportunities that are out there because they will certainly contribute to the growth of the industry over the next couple of years.

Also, the opening up of many different gambling markets around the world is sure to help the online gambling market grow. France and The United States are expected to be some of the most lucrative markets in the world and they will both be of great value to the industry at large.

The publicly traded Party Gaming is happy to report that the first week in March showed some incredible rises in stock price as the stock climbed from an already nice number of $301 dollars to $321.90 dollars by the end of the week! Investors were happy to see this happening and said that the growth in the stock price had a direct relation to the numbers of success that were reported from the company earlier in the week that said Party Gaming as a whole had a strong finish in the last quarter of 2009 especially with regards to their Party Poker division.
 
The company is hoping that this continue into next week as everyone is happy when these type of results are displayed!
 
There are many reasons that the company as whole has reason to believe that they will continue growing. While online gambling continues to grow in popularity around the world, they are also happy to announce that the government law suit between the US and PartyGaming was concluded last year and they are free of the legal battle.
 
The company had also spent last year making some acquisitions into smaller online casinos that turned out to be a worthwhile investment and making a bigger name and brand presence for themselves. In turn this is all paying off and the online gambling company is on route for another great year.
 
The rise of this online casino gaming stock is bringing up the prices of other online casinos that trade on the London Stock exchange. It will be interesting to see what happens next week and if the trend in the rise of the prices continues!

There are many waiting the results that the financial report from Party Gaming will bring. The forecasters are waiting to hear from the financial officers of the company as reports of the final earnings are due out this week. It is rumoured that the company finished strong and so investors will be happy to hear the latest earnings and in turn will be lucky to watch their investments climb.
 
Of course there have been disappointments before so many are hesitant top up their holdings before they hear any news and some are even hedging their investments. Las year was a slower year for some online casino companies as many lost several hundreds of thousands of US based players due to several reasons such as laws by the government as well as the recession. The online casino industry does has some publicly traded members such as Party Gaming which actually the largest traded online casino on the London Stock Exchange.
 
It will be interesting to see what this year brings out in performance because it will also be an indicator for the next quarter to follow and party gaming is hoping to rise ahead of the competition and show their players and investors that they are the best in the industry be it to play at their online casino or poker room or to invest in the stock as part of your investment portfolio.
 
Stay tuned to our news sections as we will report the information once it is released and we will have our fingers crossed that the online gambling group had as good a year as some have hoped.

The fairly new online casino known as Slot Club has recently announced that it will be closing its doors for good as of the end of this month. The exact date of closing will be January 31st, 2010. This news came in just recently and the online casino did not have too much of a run since it only opened its doors in February of last year.

Its a dog eat dog world out there in the industry of online casinos and online gambling altogether. Sure many believe its a lucrative industry to be in, and for some it really is. There are companies out there that are making millions on a daily basis. But those companies (at least for the most part) are considered pioneers in the industry and they have been around for an average time of ten years – which is when online gambling just began.

New players that enter the industry sometimes have a tough time, its hard to say what exactly goes wrong. Perhaps their promotions aren’t good enough, perhaps bonuses aren’t well received. Maybe they just don’t offer the games that players want to see. But either way there were simply not enough players to keep the doors of the online casinos open.

Either way if you are currently a member of that particular online casino now is a good time to get your money out. Any funds that are still in the casino after the last day in January may be lost and not returned to the customer.