As reported recently, the owners of PokerStars and Paddy Power Betfair have agreed to merge the businesses with a brand-new business deal which will see the establishment of the biggest online gambling and betting company by gross gaming revenues in the world. What is even more, this merged company also plans on taking advantage of the rapidly-growing United States-based iGaming markets.
Paddy Power is definitely one of the most popular, leading bookmakers which emerged on the scene in 1988 in the capital city of Ireland, Dublin. The firm conducts its business through a large chain of gambling shops located in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company also operates the largest Ireland-based telephone gambling service while on the Internet, Paddy Power offers online poker, sports betting, online casino, and online bingo games.
Two iGaming Behemoths Merging
Paddy Power merged with another premier betting company Betfair back in February of 2016 to create what we know today as Flutter Entertainment or Paddy Power Betfair. When it comes to the Poker Stars brand, it is definitely among the leading online poker rooms in the industry owned and operated by The Stars Group. The brand was founded almost twenty years ago on the 11th of September 2001.
Back in 2003, one of the Poker Stars online satellite poker tournaments produced the 2003 WSOP champion. This was Chris Moneymaker who became the very first person to become a WSOP champion by qualifying at an online poker room. Chris Moneymaker’s win from 2003 was among the most important factors which later on led to the massive poker boom and consequently to Poker Stars becoming the world’s biggest online poker site which today controls significantly over two-thirds of the entire online poker gaming world.
According to the business deal’s agreement, Paddy Power Betfair also known as Flutter Entertainment, will merge with The Stars Group which owns and operates Poker Stars. As revealed, Flutter Entertainment’s shareholders will own slightly over 54.64% of the new entity while shareholders of the other company will have a smaller percentage of around 45.3.
Huge Customer Base
As things stand now, the newly formed group will have more than 13 million active customers with a presence in over 100 markets around the globe. This will give them a huge advantage in the competitive iGaming industry and create new opportunities to further boost their already hugely successful individual businesses.
It will be particularly interesting to see what the new group’s plans might be for the booming US market. With the sports betting becoming legal in the States, two gaming giants will certainly look to make their presence known in the US as well.
The Stars Group already has a significant footprint in the United States and combining forces with Paddy Power Betfair will make it possible for them to tackle even more areas of the market, especially when it comes to sports betting, something for which Paddy Power is famous for. Both companies agree that the opening of the US betting market is one of the most exciting events in the history of the iGaming industry and it’s an opportunity they’ll certainly be looking to seize as much as possible.
