Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

[DonkBluffer]

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DonkBluffer,

Holland Casino is a government backed entity, the online site is going to be huge in the Netherlands. The government will almost certainly do everything in its power to sway Dutch players to the Holland Casino site over its foreign, unregulated, untaxed, offshore competitors, don't you think?


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That's what I was thinking.
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I'm not sure how adverse an impact this would have on Everest Poker. Why is it that Everest Poker is so popular in the Netherlands in the first place? I have my own theory, but I would be interested in hearing your view.

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Well, for one, one of the biggest Dutch poker sites (pokerinfo.nl) advertises for Everest a lot. They have special everest promos and if you click their "Begin Online" link, it gives a step-by-step explanation on how to install everest,register and deposit.
Also, when you google "poker" at google.nl everest is the third overall result, and the first poker site result.

[villafan]

The Q4 results will be released tomorrow. I think the consensus estimate is 0.13 dollar pr share.

I have been long since right before Q3 numbers and have faith in the company and the management. Some of the Norwegian big affiliates have started to promote Everest quite heavily, and the results are already showing up in their player numbers.

Everest Poker has traditionally had its biggest player base in
1) France
2) Germany
3) Netherlands
but now we see a lot more Scandinavian players there. I have also started seeing more and more players from South America.

It was the poker growth that made me buy into Gigamedia, but I think the big upside is not in traditional poker and casino. I think it is in Mahjong and their World Series of Mahjong tournament. It will be interesting to see what the management says about the expectations from this game.

Their Hellgate: London license will probably not yield much money (maybe a cent or two in earnings in second half), but the Funtown portal deal with Yahoo may give the company's games a boost.

But tomorrow its all about the poker numbers. The other business will probably be important revenue drivers from after second half.

[laserboy]

This company actually IPO'ed as a Taiwanese broadband provider at the height of the tech bubble in 2000. The IPO price was $27 and it traded as high as $88 on the first day of trading. People who bought at IPO got hosed bigtime, including Microsoft who was one of the original stakeholders.

It wasn't until they acquired Grand Virtual a couple years ago and developed the software for Everest Poker a little later that the business turned around.