Egaming whets venture capitalists’ appetite

Institutional and venture capital investors’ appetite for egaming firms is running at record levels, according to the CEO of online casino giant, Carmen Media.
Tim Johnson, CEO of Gibraltar-based Carmen, said a private company could easily match the US$300m raised by publicly-listed Sportingbet for its acquisition of Paradise Poker in the current climate.

“The money for investment is there from big blue-chip companies should anybody require it, and you could very easily raise US$300m overnight even as a private company,” Johnson said.

“The desire to do co-owned joint ventures from blue-chip companies at the moment is that strong.”

Johnson’s comments echo those of many industry insiders who predict 2005 will see some of the larger egaming firms looking to raise capital to fund an acquisition drive.

Gibraltar-based iGlobalMedia hinted earlier this month it was looking to acquire a string of smaller poker sties to cement the dominance of its Party Poker subsidiary.

And several casino and sports betting firms are known to be pursuing IPOs in order to raise capital to buy up

“The industry has grown up to the point now where consolidation is just natural,” Johnson said.

“It’s been coming for a long time, but I think it will speed up in the next two years and it will be survival of the fittest.”

Article posted on www.egrmagazine.com on 17th Dec 04