According to reports from the Y-News site, Noam Lanir, the Israeli marketing expert and online gambling and poker entrepreneur, agreed to sell his remaining shares in Empire Online to PartyPoker for 40 million U.S. dollars.  PartyGaming, the world’s largest operator of online gambling web sites, is expected to close the deal with Lanir in just a matter of days.

Many Israeli experts on the online gambling industry are suggesting that Lanir’s move is indicative of similar moves being planned by the two remaining Israeli online gambling companies that are also traded on the London Stock Exchange.  Suspicisions are that these two companies, Playtech and 888.com, are considering a move similar to Lanir because of the recent passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which bans financial transactions between US residents and online gambling sites.

Lanir made the decision to sell his stock to PartyGaming a year and a half after Empire Online listed on the London Stock Exchange.  Lanir will likely leave the online gambling industry entirely and use the money earned from the sell of Empire Online, which is rumored to be about 300 million US dollars, for future investments in real estate.

When it first traded on the London Stock Exchange, Empire Online was worth approximately US $928 million but recently its shares have taken a sharp drop in value.  After shares fell by 80 percent, the company’s value today is estimated at $244 million.

Posted on: January 7, 2007

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