by Anton Johan
One of the biggest mergers seen in online gambling history took one step closer to becoming a reality this week.
Shareholders in Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG and the Gibraltar based PartyGaming voted just before the weekend to allow the official merger of the two betting and gaming provider giants.
Last year, Bwin Entertainment and PartyGaming announced that they intended on merging after rounds of intensive talks and negotiations.
The plan is to create one of the largest listed online gambling groups in the world.
Analysts predict that that combined group, to be known as Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment plc, will realize annualized synergies of €55 million from 2013 and owards.
The Chief Executive Officers of both companies, Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger, will run the new Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment jointly.
Yesterday, they issued a joint statement about the results of the shareholder meetings.
"Today's shareholder meetings were a key milestone in the overall process, putting the transformational merger of our two companies well on the way to completion," they said.
"We are delighted that both sets of shareholders have overwhelmingly recognized the strategic, operational and financial benefits of creating the world's largest listed online gaming company."
The merger is reportedly worth around €2.4 billion and will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Bwin will retain a 51.7% shareholding, while PartyGaming will hold 48.3%.
