April 20 -Poker Stars, the second biggest online poker room in the world, will go public on the London Stock Exchange. The Poker Stars IPO should attract plenty of interest as the company is valued at over $2 billion.
75% of Poker Stars is currently owned by a single Israeli family. It was started in 1999 by Isai Scheinberg who was a former programmer with IBM. The company is based in the Isle Of Man and reportedly makes profits of $200 million per year.
Poker Stars was initially looking to be bought out by either a land-based gambling concern or possibly another online poker operator. But this has not transpired so an IPO is now very much on the cards.
Poker Stars shot to prominence thanks to providing both Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer with their seats at the World Series Of Poker Main Event. The boom in online poker would never have happened, at least not to this extent, without Poker Stars. The website remains a favorite for serious poker players, and routinely holds the biggest online poker tournaments in the world with a guaranteed $1,000,000.00 tournament every week!
