Google is buying bwin.party
In the middle of September, a delicious rumor that Google was making an attempt to purchase bwin.party spread like wildfire through igaming circles. The story originated Daily Mail blogger Geoff Foster who speculated that Mountain View’s interest in the struggling operator was fueling a huge jump in bwin stocks on the London Exchange.
Foster’s educated guess fueled a huge number of reports on gambling blogs and news sites (including CAP) that Google this was something that could, indeed, happen. After all, bwin was about to get into the regulated US market in the New Jersey. That’s exactly the kind of deal the eggheads at Google would go for. Right?
Wrong.
Truth: It’s been almost three months since the rumor mill picked up the Google Buys Bwin story and, as of this writing, the deal never happened. The rumor’s impact on bwin stock was short lived and flamed out before either company ever had a proper chance to deny anything.
If Google was ever interested in getting into the gambling business or not is anybody’s guess and like most rumors this included a lot of wishful thinking, speculation, and almost no truth.