swetswise.com
Luke 
February 3, 2016The 34 years old King of Onoline Gambling (a title assigned to him by Forbes last year after his bold take over of PokerStar) is on the roll. This time he wants to aquire full ownership of Amaya, where he is now in the role of CEO. The aquisition of 2014 has been pretty well summarised by Robert Young, a financial analyst at Canaccord Genuity. “They went out and bought one of the crown jewels of online gaming for $4.9 billion, and their valuation was much less than $1 billion.”. Well, he is about to do it again from what it seems.
Apparently Baazov has partnered with a number of investors, putting together about 40% of Amaya’s stock value (based on prices from close of market on Friday at Toronto Stock Exchange).
The offer was quite unexpected, especially in the light of how busy the company is at present – launching an online casino and sports betting platform along with a new brand – Daily Fantasy Sports. They are also rethinking the VIP PokerStars system.
The news were officially confirmed with a statement, saying “David Baazov” […] intends to make an all-cash proposal to acquire Amaya at a price currently estimated by Mr. Baazov to be C$21.00 per common share.” . The company will set up a special committee to evaluate the offer and is expecting to receive more of those in the light of the proposal from competitors – this well might be the next big war for control over one of the biggest names in online poker.
Shortly after the news spreading, French businessman Alex Dreyfus (a known name in the gambling world) expressed his belief that the potential acquisition will be very positive for the poker industry. “The acquisition of Pokerstars by Amaya in 2014 was a debt-backed operation. While the company is leading the poker market with more than 70 percent market-share, the growth of revenues and the ability to innovate have been limited because the priority was to pay back the debt and to please the analysts. Paying back the debt was fine and the company is in a very good position to do so, but providing growth and satisfying public shareholders and analysts, is sometimes an opposite goal. Innovation and growth need investment and taking risks. It was impossible to develop a long-term strategy, everything was focused on Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4,” -Dreyfus explains- “The management was not driven by a long-term approach, but by short-term return. It was frustrating. It was legit, but [this] doesn’t help poker and those who love [the] industry.”
Sure seems like Mr. Baazov is in it for the long run. And we can’t really complain – his involvement so far has only brought good news to the igaming industry, so let’s wait and see how will this one turn out!
