The process of merging PartyGaming and bwin has been completed and the company has formally re-registered its name as bwin.party digital entertainment.
The new entity began trading for the first time on Thursday with an opening share price of £1.94. The company’s ordinary shares of 0.015 pence each have been delisted and re-admitted to the premium segment of the official list and commenced dealing on the London Stock Exchange’s main market last week.
As a result of the merger completing, the following appointments to the company’s board of directors have also taken effect: Simon Duffy as non-executive chairman of the board, Norbert Teufelberger as co-CEO, Joachim Baca as COO, Per Afrell as independent non-executive director, Manfred Bodner as non-executive director, Helmut Kern as independent non-executive director and Georg Riedl as non-executive director.
Commenting on the completion, Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger, the co-CEOs, said: "As we make the transition from unregulated to regulated markets we have an excellent opportunity to capitalise on our market-leading positions in sports betting, poker, casino and games as well as bingo."
Simon Duffy, the newly appointed chairman of the board, commented: "This is a landmark day for the online gaming sector and bwin.party is now in a position to leverage its combined resources to take maximum advantage of regulating markets and the exciting opportunities in the real money gaming and digital entertainment sectors."
