Need to Know, 23 October: liberty, equality, Party and Italy

DIKSHIT, EH? That reminds us of a joke”¦

No, OK, perhaps not. On a more serious note, the industry was ablaze this week with our exclusive that PartyGaming founder-member Anurag Dikshit is to sell his entire 28% stake in the company.

The story began as the revelation that Dikshit was to sell two thirds of his equity, some 75 million shares, but our roving reporters soon discovered that the entire lot will be up for grabs. In your face, Reuters!

Dikshit has been all but withdrawn from the business for years now, but the news of the sale marks his final farewell, despite his having agreed to pay $300m to the US authorities late last year to clear his name of all charges related to breaches of America’s Wire Act.

Analysts agree that the exit is no reflection on his views on Party, but rather reflects his realisation that a few years after making a billion dollars, it’s time to invest in doing some good via his charity helping India’s poor instead. For which we applaud him.

Across La Manche, meanwhile SPS Betting, the egaming arm of France’s Eurosport TV network, announced that it is to launch an Italy-facing site as a trial run operating in a regulated market ahead of a launch in its home market of France when regulation allows next year. And then announced that actually, it isn’t.

The turnaround reflects the 34^th-placed Power 50 operator‘s realisation that using the world’s seventh largest economy as a guinea pig for is perhaps a little more demanding than anticipated, and the Italian site has been shelved in favour of a free-play launch in France. Probability just said it will launch in France.

To the east, meanwhile, operators were cheered by news that Germany’s online gambling ban could be under threat, after the CDU-FDP coalition now in charge called for an end to the German Interstate Treaty on Gambling.

And far, far to the west, operators were cheered by new Poker Voters of America chief Melanie Brenner‘s promise that a bill to enable intrastate online poker in California is on track to be introduced into the California legislature early next year, despite the failure of a draft bill to find a sponsor last month.

Especially cheered wasBetfair, which has just signed a major racing deal with the US Breeder’s Cup tote.

In other news: William Hill andPlaytech both suffered by freak football results; Ladbrokes‘ rights issue led to a short-selling spree; the Gambling.com fightback continued and a genius joined Bettorlogic.

Happy Friday.