888.com’s Volatile Share Prices On Opening Day

Friday 30th September 2005

Internet casino 888’s share price suffered on Thursday even after it priced its shares at the lower end of the range. As the casino giant’s shares tumbled it took rivals with it.

888 priced its initial public offering at 175 pence a share -- from a range of 162p to 212p -- amid concerns about slowing Internet gaming growth after a warning this month from online poker group PartyGaming.

Initially, the shares jumped 5 percent, before falling 12 percent to 162 pence. But by the close of trading they had recovered slightly to 170 pence, giving the group a market value of around 575 million pounds.

The volatility created jitters throughout the sector and Sportingbet fell 3.1 percent while PartyGaming fell 8.4 percent to 87-1/2 pence, down 25 percent on its original listing price in June.

Chief executive John Anderson admitted PartyGaming's warning earlier this month of a slowdown in online gambling had upset both valuations and sentiment.

'There has obviously been a lot of volatility in the last few weeks. We are getting stuck in. You can't control the market on a day-to-day basis, so we will concentrate on running the business.'

Source: OnlineCasinoNews