Poker Party People
By Daniel Michaels, May 28th 2007Vikrant Bhargava is one of the biggest gambling tycoons in the world. He is a 32 years old engineer from Rajasthan, India and he has never played poker in a real casino. Still he might make a fortune from poker because he has a 15% stake in PartyGaming, one of the most famous companies in the online poker world, which owns Party Poker.
Some say that this company is worth $450 million. Anurag Dikshit (33), Bhargava’s friend has even more money because he was one of the founders of the company back in 1998. He holds 40% of the company which means he owns approximately $1.25 billion.
He is not accustomed to the media and that's why Bhargava was named the marketing director, and his job is to conduct PartyGaming's first proper press interview. The change is going to take place because PartyGaming is under a review, and if the review is positive the company might open a new branch in London.
The profits of the company have been estimated by insiders and they are fabulous: last year the company made $350 million and this year it is expected to make between $500-$600 million. The business might be worth $6bn which is very impressive giving the fact that Party Poker didn't even exist four years ago.
The status of online gambling in the U.S have complicated the things a little because Bhargava, Dikshit must now convince the investment community that the business is safe, and that it will not be shut down by the U.S government.
Things look bright because last year Sportingbet, a British company bought Paradise Poker, one of PartyGaming's rivals for $169m and since then its share price has raised with 150%. Bhargava says that on peak hours more than 70,000 people play the game in the same time.
Quite an impressing figure considering the fact that two years ago less than 2,000 people played during the same hours. Party Poker uses the rake system which means it collects a small portion of money from each pot.
That can bring you a lot of money especially when the site is so successful. Bhargava said that Party poker is not an original idea because when they saw the success of Paradise Poker, they decided to give it a try and create an online casino.
To gain popularity they decided to host a tournament with the grand prize of $1 million. The sum was unheard of in the online community, because only the biggest tournaments hosted in the land based casinos could afford paying that kind of money.
Their idea was to create some mini tournaments with small buy-ins then allow 100 people who qualified to compete for the great prize. They decided to host the tournament on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.
Their Credibility
They decided to broadcast the event so that people could see that they weren't joking around. They were new in the business and they already offered a $1 million prize. The tournament indeed increased their popularity.
That publicity cost them because they lost $500,000 at the end of the tournament, but it didn’t matter because they were known world-wide. People realized that the company is trustworthy because they offered the prize even when it was clear that they didn’t made a profit from the tournament.
From there on in, the success of the company continued to grow. The decision to televise poker tournaments helped too. These tournaments are broadcast to the entire world and they offer a new perspective of the game. The viewers are now able to see the cards of each player thanks to the under-the-table cameras, which makes it more exciting to watch.
The viewers know when a player bluffs and they can’t wait to see if the guy that has something will fall in his trap. The audience of such tournaments grew considerably especially since Hollywood stars such as Ben Affleck and Nicole Kidman decided to play in the competition.
Party Poker's signed Mike Sexton as its public face and that proved to be a huge success. Bhargava said that after the 2003 World Poker Tour which was broadcasted live on TV, the company’s share grew from 20% to 50%. People were fascinated by the tournament and they got more and more interested in playing.
They spread the word that the game can be played online as well and the results never failed to appear. Bhargava used marketing techniques to bring more customers to the site. He paid affiliates to gather more people, and they could be players, other websites, bloggers, and so on.
The status of the online gambling in the U.S doesn’t scare them because the casino is not located on U.S soil but in Gibraltar, which is the place where Ladbrokes and Victor Chandler, the famous bookmakers have built their online operations.
Bhargava says that he is not afraid to go in the U.S because usually the States are more indulgent when it comes to poker, a game that was made popular in their country. He says that the Wire Act was created to stop gambling on sports, and not on poker.
The UK gambling bill wants to bring the online operators on their territory so they could be more closely regulated. He is not to keen about this, but he admits that being recognized as a proper industry by a country from U.K is something to be proud of.
He says that Gibraltar demands little in taxes, but paying taxes is not a concern for them, because regulation would play a much important role. The investment communities are worried about the fact that online casinos could launder money unwittingly because billions of dollars are exchanged through them.
Bhargava said that there is no reason to worry because fraud and customer verification is taken very seriously and besides they have a deposit limit. They don’t allow people to deposit into their online account a sum that would seem too high.
He said that $500 is more than enough to play online poker, so if somebody would want to deposit very big sum, such as $100,000 it would draw their attention.
Hackers
Bhargava said that a few hundred players were banned for attempting collusion. The software can identify such attempts very easy and is not too difficult for them to take actions. He said that hackers represented a bigger threat because they were blackmailed to send some money into various Russian accounts otherwise they will crash the website.
He said that in 2004 their site went down for many times but now they have software programs which can protect them very well from these attacks, so they no longer represent a serious threat. The site’s credibility can be damaged because Ruth Parasol, another founder and owner of 20% of the shares, used internet pornography to make her first fortune.
Bhargava said that the subject can’t be avoided even if Ruth cut any connections with that industry. Bhargava trusts her and he is sure that Ruth is no longer tied with the pornography industry, because if she would be, more than 99.9% of the people in their organization would stop working.
Every man and woman that work in the company are honest and of deep integrity. The investors appreciate the fact that the company has recently hired executives with public-company experience, like Richard Segal, the former boss of Odeon cinemas, or David Abdoo, the former company secretary of Carlton.
By hiring them PartyGaming has proved that they want to expand, not to itself to the highest bidder. If they would agree to start a branch in London they would dispose the capital to buy rivals, and Cassava Enterprises is one possibility.
Cassava Enterprises is owner of the 888.com online casino. The future looks bright for them even if they don’t manage to sell the business because they can expand the business to new horizons. We can only wait and see what the future awaits for this company.
Some say that this company is worth $450 million. Anurag Dikshit (33), Bhargava’s friend has even more money because he was one of the founders of the company back in 1998. He holds 40% of the company which means he owns approximately $1.25 billion.
He is not accustomed to the media and that's why Bhargava was named the marketing director, and his job is to conduct PartyGaming's first proper press interview. The change is going to take place because PartyGaming is under a review, and if the review is positive the company might open a new branch in London.
The profits of the company have been estimated by insiders and they are fabulous: last year the company made $350 million and this year it is expected to make between $500-$600 million. The business might be worth $6bn which is very impressive giving the fact that Party Poker didn't even exist four years ago.
The status of online gambling in the U.S have complicated the things a little because Bhargava, Dikshit must now convince the investment community that the business is safe, and that it will not be shut down by the U.S government.
Things look bright because last year Sportingbet, a British company bought Paradise Poker, one of PartyGaming's rivals for $169m and since then its share price has raised with 150%. Bhargava says that on peak hours more than 70,000 people play the game in the same time.
Quite an impressing figure considering the fact that two years ago less than 2,000 people played during the same hours. Party Poker uses the rake system which means it collects a small portion of money from each pot.
That can bring you a lot of money especially when the site is so successful. Bhargava said that Party poker is not an original idea because when they saw the success of Paradise Poker, they decided to give it a try and create an online casino.
To gain popularity they decided to host a tournament with the grand prize of $1 million. The sum was unheard of in the online community, because only the biggest tournaments hosted in the land based casinos could afford paying that kind of money.
Their idea was to create some mini tournaments with small buy-ins then allow 100 people who qualified to compete for the great prize. They decided to host the tournament on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.
Their Credibility
They decided to broadcast the event so that people could see that they weren't joking around. They were new in the business and they already offered a $1 million prize. The tournament indeed increased their popularity.
That publicity cost them because they lost $500,000 at the end of the tournament, but it didn’t matter because they were known world-wide. People realized that the company is trustworthy because they offered the prize even when it was clear that they didn’t made a profit from the tournament.
From there on in, the success of the company continued to grow. The decision to televise poker tournaments helped too. These tournaments are broadcast to the entire world and they offer a new perspective of the game. The viewers are now able to see the cards of each player thanks to the under-the-table cameras, which makes it more exciting to watch.
The viewers know when a player bluffs and they can’t wait to see if the guy that has something will fall in his trap. The audience of such tournaments grew considerably especially since Hollywood stars such as Ben Affleck and Nicole Kidman decided to play in the competition.
Party Poker's signed Mike Sexton as its public face and that proved to be a huge success. Bhargava said that after the 2003 World Poker Tour which was broadcasted live on TV, the company’s share grew from 20% to 50%. People were fascinated by the tournament and they got more and more interested in playing.
They spread the word that the game can be played online as well and the results never failed to appear. Bhargava used marketing techniques to bring more customers to the site. He paid affiliates to gather more people, and they could be players, other websites, bloggers, and so on.
The status of the online gambling in the U.S doesn’t scare them because the casino is not located on U.S soil but in Gibraltar, which is the place where Ladbrokes and Victor Chandler, the famous bookmakers have built their online operations.
Bhargava says that he is not afraid to go in the U.S because usually the States are more indulgent when it comes to poker, a game that was made popular in their country. He says that the Wire Act was created to stop gambling on sports, and not on poker.
The UK gambling bill wants to bring the online operators on their territory so they could be more closely regulated. He is not to keen about this, but he admits that being recognized as a proper industry by a country from U.K is something to be proud of.
He says that Gibraltar demands little in taxes, but paying taxes is not a concern for them, because regulation would play a much important role. The investment communities are worried about the fact that online casinos could launder money unwittingly because billions of dollars are exchanged through them.
Bhargava said that there is no reason to worry because fraud and customer verification is taken very seriously and besides they have a deposit limit. They don’t allow people to deposit into their online account a sum that would seem too high.
He said that $500 is more than enough to play online poker, so if somebody would want to deposit very big sum, such as $100,000 it would draw their attention.
Hackers
Bhargava said that a few hundred players were banned for attempting collusion. The software can identify such attempts very easy and is not too difficult for them to take actions. He said that hackers represented a bigger threat because they were blackmailed to send some money into various Russian accounts otherwise they will crash the website.
He said that in 2004 their site went down for many times but now they have software programs which can protect them very well from these attacks, so they no longer represent a serious threat. The site’s credibility can be damaged because Ruth Parasol, another founder and owner of 20% of the shares, used internet pornography to make her first fortune.
Bhargava said that the subject can’t be avoided even if Ruth cut any connections with that industry. Bhargava trusts her and he is sure that Ruth is no longer tied with the pornography industry, because if she would be, more than 99.9% of the people in their organization would stop working.
Every man and woman that work in the company are honest and of deep integrity. The investors appreciate the fact that the company has recently hired executives with public-company experience, like Richard Segal, the former boss of Odeon cinemas, or David Abdoo, the former company secretary of Carlton.
By hiring them PartyGaming has proved that they want to expand, not to itself to the highest bidder. If they would agree to start a branch in London they would dispose the capital to buy rivals, and Cassava Enterprises is one possibility.
Cassava Enterprises is owner of the 888.com online casino. The future looks bright for them even if they don’t manage to sell the business because they can expand the business to new horizons. We can only wait and see what the future awaits for this company.
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Poker Party People
