The owners plan to float up to 23% of the stock and the deal is expected to be one of the biggest flotations in London for some time. The IPO should propel PartyGaming straight into the FTSE 100, along with companies like Marks & Spencer and WPP Group.
PartyGaming is based in Gibraltar and claims to have the biggest market share of all the online poker websites by revenue and by players, and that it regularly hosts more than 70,000 players simultaneous.
In 2004, it had revenue of $601.6m (拢332.8m), with post-tax profit of $350.1m, with 92% of its revenue coming from online poker. In the UK it runs PartyPoker.co.uk.
The company's employees are also set to win from the flotation, with PartyGaming saying it would allot 5.6% of the issued shares to a trust with share options being granted ahead of the IPO.
Richard Segal, chief executive officer of PartyGaming, said: "Our future strategy is clear: we intend to drive organic growth through the further penetration of our core markets, building the Party brand in broader geographic regions, creating new games and exploiting new channels to market such as wireless applications."
He added that the online gaming market is fragmented and geographically diverse, which he said presented opportunities for strategic acquisitions.
As well as poker, PartyGaming runs the online casino StarluckCasino.com and the bingo site PartyBingo.com. Working alongside Segal, who joined in August last year from the Odeon cinema chain where he was also CEO, is Sage Group chairman Michael Jackson, who is non-executive chairman of PartyGaming, and finance director Martin Weigold, who was formerly finance chief at Jetix.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .