PartyGaming Co-Founder Anurag Dikshit Severs Ties With Stock Sale

Ending a relationship that dates back to the beginning of the online poker industry, PartyGaming co-founder Anurag Dikshit has divested himself of any ownership in the company with the sale of his remaining stock on Tuesday.

According to the London Stock Exchange and the British newspaper The Telegraph, Dikshit owned slightly more than 38.8 million shares of PartyGaming PLC. Because of his ownership of the stock, Dikshit held voting rights that would have continued to hold a significant influence on the company’s track. With the sale, however, Dikshit has fully divested himself of any connection with the company he helped start back in the late 1990s.

The 38.8 million shares of PartyGaming stock held by Dikshit amounts to £114 million (slightly over $184.6 million American) and helped to drive the price of PartyGaming PLC up during trading on Tuesday and Wednesday. Opening at 277.10p at the start of trade Wednesday, PartyGaming PLC trended up 14.2p over the course of the day, finishing at 292p by the end of trading on the London Stock Market.

It is estimated that Dikshit has cashed out stock in the company that eclipses £700m (slightly over $1.1 billion American.) Through his involvement with PartyGaming, Dikshit has also become one of India’s wealthiest citizens. With the sale of his remaining ownership in the company complete, Dikshit is expected to return to the many philanthropic trusts that he oversees, including those that fund medical and educational interests in India.

Since the creation of PartyGaming in the late 1990s, Dikshit had been a formative figure in the company. Along with husband and wife Russ DeLeon and Ruth Parasol and Vikrant Bhargava, Dikshit – who was the creator of the PartyGaming software that the company uses – drove the company to reach the pinnacle of the online poker industry with PartyPoker. By 2005, when the foursome took PartyGaming public on the London Stock Exchange, PartyPoker had even become a force in the live poker world with a sponsorship deal at the World Series of Poker.

2006 proved to be a pivotal point for the company, however. With the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) by the American government, PartyGaming was forced to prohibit American players from participating on Party Poker (as a publicly traded entity, it could not violate the laws of another country and remain on the LSE). Since that time, PartyGaming has been passed in the online poker industry by two rooms that still accept American players, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, and battles for the third spot consistently with another non-U.S. facing company, the iPoker Network.

Dikshit has been the only member of the founders of PartyGaming to ever face the American authorities as far as their gaming actions are concerned. After the passage of the UIGEA, The Telegraph reports that Dikshit was “increasingly worried about the ramifications of the company’s operations being declared illegal in America” and stepped down as the director of PartyGaming. This led to his admission of guilt in December 2008 in a U. S. court to violating American laws regarding online gaming. Still facing the possibility of two years in jail for his guilty plea, Dikshit has paid $300 million in fines and, according to Justice Department officials, has been assisting them in their ongoing investigations. Whether Dikshit will face any jail time when the case is reviewed in December of this year is still unknown.

The sale of Dikshit’s remaining stake in PartyGaming comes at a time when the company is looking at several merger options, according to The Telegraph. In The Telegraph article, it is stated that PartyGaming is “continuing to hold discussions with a number of companies in the gaming sector regarding potential consolidation opportunities” and speculates that industry competitor Bwin is a possible merger partner.

Related Poker News:

Wild Cherry 200% Bonus worth up to $1200 with No Max Cashout!

Fast play, fast payouts and unrivalled customer support.

Poker slang:

FOURTH STREET - In stud poker, the fourth card dealt to each player. Sometimes used to refer to the fourth community card dealt in Hold'em, although the more common term for this is TURN (q.v.).
POSSIBLE [STRAIGHT/FLUSH] - Up cards that quite possibly could lead to a straight and/or a flush.
POCKET PAIR - Generic Hold'em term for 2 hole cards of the same rank.
LIVE BLIND - The last and largest blind bet may or may not be LIVE. If LIVE, the blind bettor has the option of "raising" his own blind in the event the bet is called around to him. This is normal, and is sometimes referred to as "blinds are live".
OVER - A term used in describing two pair or a full house. "Kings over tens" means two pair, kings and tens. "Jacks over", also "Jacks up" describes a hand that is two pair: Jacks with an unspecified lower pair. Also used to describe a full house, distinguishing the three of a kind from the pair. The hand J-J-J-A-A could be described as "Full house, Jacks over Aces".
FULL HOUSE - A hand consisting of 3-of-a-kind and a (different) pair.

♥ Bookmark Us! ♠

Poker Information