Intralot Partners with Party for Italian Online Poker

Greece's Intralot S.A. has become the newest entrant in Italy's booming online poker market, and the company told IGamingNews Monday it will launch with PartyGaming, its network services provider, in a "few weeks' time."

In the first two months of 2009, poker overtook sports betting as Italy's top turnover generator online, delivering 285 million euros, and early returns from companies like Lottomatica S.p.A., Playtech Ltd. and Bwin Interactive Entertainment A.G. are exceeding expectations.

PartyGaming announced plans in early March to launch an Italian poker network, and Intralot -- which generated consolidated income of over 1 billion euros in 2008 -- is "a significant partner for Party to win," Ivor Jones, an analyst with Evolution Securities, said in a note to clients Monday.

The deal should help lift PartyGaming's sagging poker revenues, though neither Intralot nor PartyGaming would disclose financial targets for the new venture. Intralot management said in an e-mail that the company expects "to get a good market share, relevant to our presence in the Italian market."

Monday's deal follows PartyGaming's recent b-to-b agreement with Cirsa Gaming Corporation and Intralot's stated interest in acquiring licensure in France once the online market opens there.

In recent weeks, Intralot also made its interest known in bidding for the licensure to operate slot machines and instant lotteries in Italy.

In a prepared statement, the two companies said they would "also cooperate to explore opportunities for providing online gaming services in specific markets around the world."

A spokesperson for PartyGaming did not return an e-mail and phone call by press time Monday.