Online gaming operator bwin.party’s share price fell on Tuesday after broker Morgan Stanley said that the relaunch of online poker service PartyPoker had failed to make a significant impact so far, according to the Financial Times newspaper.
Morgan Stanley cited industry data that suggested that the company’s online poker service, PartyPoker, had continued to lose market share over the past four months, with no great uplift in traffic.
PartyPoker relaunched in September shortly after the company issued a warning that its efforts to streamline the business were likely to impact sales.
Bwin’s share price on the London Stock Exchange dropped by 3.4% to 120.7p (145.9 € cents/198.2 $ cents) by the close of trading on Tuesday.
“The company does not have a steady base of high-quality income from any product or region,” Morgan Stanley said.
“We see a risk that lower marketing spend drives lower active customers, generating less revenue, with fewer funds available to invest in product development and marketing, and that this, in turn, leads to lower customer numbers.”
