Amaya Gaming Unveils Plans of a Second Listing in London or New York
A month after the announcement of the $4.9 billion deal that should bring PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker under its control, Canadian gambling giant Amaya Gaming unveiled plans for yet another multi-billion dollar operation.
Speaking to the Sunday Times on June 5, Amaya CEO David Baazov explained that the company, which currently has a primary listing on the Toronto stock exchange with a market cap of C$2bn. (approx. USD$ 1.8bn.), is considering a second listing either at the New York or London stock exchange.
"There will be a dual listing,” said Baazov, explaining that the group has now only left to decide whether to do that in New York or in London, where other gambling groups as bwin.party and 888 are currently listed.
On June 12, Amaya Gaming announced to have reached an agreement with the Rational Group to take over PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker for $4.9bn.
The deal, which was financed with loans from institutions including Blackstone, Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Macquarie, should be officially concluded in September, after receiving the approval of Amaya's stakeholders.
Should everything go according to Baazov's plans, Amaya's takeover of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker should facilitate the entrance of both rooms in the U.S. regulated poker market, and lead to the establishment of the world's biggest gambling group.
As anticipated by Baazov during a conference call held on June 13, the plans of a second listing are not the only significant change in sight for the company, as the inclusion of two market leaders like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker in Amaya Gaming should lead to the creation of what he called "a global online gaming powerhouse in a large and growing online gaming market."
According to Baazov, the Rational Group’s poker brands will explore the possibility of adding new revenue sources by expanding on markets like "online casino, sports betting and social gaming" in order to join a global market that he considers to be worth approximately "$25 billion."
Amaya's plans to consolidate PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker's casino offering became even clearer in recent weeks when PokerStars' Spanish subsidiary REEL Spain, Plc obtained a license to offer online casino games in Spain's regulated market, and the Rational Group was reported to have applied to a similar license in Italy to run an online casino from the site FullTilt.it.
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