After months of speculating and analysis and enough headlines to keep online poker in the business pages on a daily basis, Partygaming.com, operators of the worlds largest online poker room, partypoker.com, finally went public

The offer price opened on the London Stock Exchange at 116p - at the lower end of the expected range, and finished 11% up at 129p. This values the company at almost $8.5bn and will most likely fast track the company to the FTSE 100

The company floated 20% of the company, with the 4 founders retaining approxinamtely 74% and 5% towards employee schemes.

Partypoker is the market leader with 55% of the online poker market, but some analysts are concerned that 80% of their revenues are derived in the US, where the online gambling law is still uncertain

- PartyGaming Makes Good Start in Debut- Partygaming shares rise on debut