Picking Up Steam -- London-listed operator PartyGaming reports that its revenues have "stabilized quickly" after the U.S. I-gaming crackdown. Excluding sports betting, gross daily revenue averaged $921,000 over a four-week period ending Dec. 11. Gross daily poker revenue averaged $721,000, after hitting a $637,000 low in October. Party also reported 945 job cuts--roughly 41 percent of its workforce--as part of its downsizing initiative. Non-executive directors Brian Larcombe and Nigel Kenny, meanwhile, will step down from the board at the end of the year. Preliminary results for the year ending Dec. 31, 2006, will be announced on March 1.
Raw Deal -- Payments processor Neteller this month announced it had been dealt a 450 percent price increase from its U.S.-based automated clearinghouse suppliers. On Dec. 1, the company began applying surcharges of $1 per transaction to U.S.-facing merchants as a partial cost-recovery initiative. The fees will be debited from Neteller merchant accounts on a monthly basis. The first period will span Dec. 1-31, with the first deduction occurring in January 2007.
Merging and Re-Launching -- Operator Bowmans International on Wednesday announced its partnership with gaming firm bet365 to re-launch Bowmans.com as a new sports book, poker room, casino and games room. Though Bowmans closed its U.S.-facing operation in October and transferred its U.S.-based customers to Bodog.com, it plans to attract new customers with heavy, real-money incentives. Bodog, in a prepared statement released yesterday, announced that U.S.-based Bowman's customers would be automatically transferred to its dot-com site. The player absorption follows Bodog's Nov. 28 acquisition of Betcorp subsidiaries, which included Bowman's poker operation.
Fingers Crossed -- Austria-based operator bwin made headlines Wednesday by stating that its business model would become obsolete if the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled unfavorably in the pending, precedent-setting cross-border gambling case. The ECJ is expected over the coming months to rule whether EU member states can outlaw betting agencies licensed in another member state. The court's Advocate General recommended in May that member states not be given this power. "In principle, the Advocate General's recommendation assures us," bwin co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger was quoted as saying in an interview in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. "If the [ECJ] didn't follow suit, the effect would be that national lawmakers can do as they want, and then you've got to say that a business model such as bwin's wouldn't make sense anymore."
Now Hiring -- The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has launched a local initiative and is seeking regional and local representatives to campaign for its cause and recruit members. "We felt it important that we have a strong local, regional and state organization that can press the agenda at home when their (Congressional representatives) are back in their local jurisdictions," said PPA president Michael Bolcerek. "They can work with local media that might be more interested in speaking with a local member of the PPA than with myself [sic]."