Reuters is reporting that online casino 888.com is set to float in the second half of this year for around $1.6 billion (840 million pounds), quoting the venerable Financial Times in an unsourced article.
Cassava Enterprises, the owner of 888.com and one of the world’s biggest Internet gambling groups, has apparently hired Credit Suisse First Boston to prepare the flotation, the FT revealed this week. Cassava was unavailable for comment.
The article did not say where 888.com would float, but London has become the de facto listing center for Internet gambling companies.
In January, the world’s biggest online poker company, PartyGaming, said it was considering what would be one of London’s largest share listings in more than three years, estimated at over 3 billion pounds.