Even though I am certainly a fan of online poker, I have to say that I am extremely happy that I am not an owner, executive or employee of an online poker company.  For the past several months, I have been monitoring many of the major online poker companies, and as I have continuously published on this blog, all of them seem to have at least one major problem looming on their horizon.

Because I am an online poker enthusiast, I'm rooting for the industry to pull through this dark time, but if the beginning of September is any indication, things still are not looking very good for the large online poker companies.  Last week, PartyGaming released their financial results from the first half of 2008.  Unlike some other companies which have released their quarterly or six month financial results for 2008, PartyGaming actually beat what financial analysts were expecting them to release.  According to PartyGaming, their EBIDTA (this is a fancy financial term that accounts came up with; it stands for earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization) for the first six months of 2008 was just under sixty-five million dollars. 

This was an impressive seventy-nine percent increase from what their EBIDTA was in the first six months of 2007.  While their actual revenues from online poker were only up six percent, this significant increase in their EBIDTA for the first six months of 2008 was fueled by online casino revenues, which were up thirty-eight percent.

Normally, when a company releases financial information that is better than financial analysts were predicting, the price of the stock increases because investors want to buy it.  However, in the case of PartyGaming, their stock price actually went down after they released their financial information for the first half of 2008.  So, how could making more money as a company result in their stock price going lower? 

Even though they had a great first two quarters, the company did state that things aren't looking as great for the third quarter.  Not only is their gross revenue expected to be lower, but their number of online poker players is also declining.