Party Gaming Signs Deal with PMU

April 2 - The Gibraltar based, London trading Party Gaming has made further strides to enter the soon-to-be regulated French online gambling market by striking a deal with the country's pari mutuel horse racing group, PMU.

Through a multi year deal, the two entities will create a brand new online poker site.

The new project will be PMU branded, using Party poker software. The site will incorporate PMU's player account systems.

Party Gaming already has a French poker network, including partypoker.fr and the new PMU site will allow access to these network members once a French gaming license has been obtained.

It is expected that Party Gaming's entry into the market through a partnership with PMU will lead the way for more foreign groups to do so as well.

Speaking of the deal, the Chief Executive Officer of Party Gaming, Jim Ryan said: "Today's agreement with PMU is consistent with our stated strategy of securing a small number of high value partners in regulated markets."

"PMU is widely recognized as one of Europe's leading betting businesses and we look forward to providing them with a world class poker service," he said.

This is the second agreement of this standard signed by Party Gaming this year. The group signed a lucrative five year deal with the Danish lottery company, Danske Spel in January that will see the group providing a platform for casino and poker games in the Scandinavian country once private operators are allowed to participate in the market from 2011.