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LOS ANGELES, Feb 14 (Reuters) - WPT Enterprises Inc. (WPTE.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which created the TV show World Poker Tour and operates a gaming Web site, said its online gaming business could eventually overtake its TV show as its top revenue generator, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
Steve Lipscomb said at the Reuters Hotels and Casinos Summit held in Los Angeles that WPTOnline, launched last year, is a fast-growing division but is unlikely to overtake the revenues generated by its televised World Poker Tour in 2006.
Television and product licensing fees accounted for $4.3 million of WPT's $5.2 million in revenue in the quarter ending Jan 1. Online gaming revenue was only $694,000.
Online gambling, although illegal in the United States, is expected to grow worldwide. A report by Christiansen Capital Advisors estimated that online poker revenue could grow to $6.7 billion by 2010 from about $1 billion in 2004.
WPTOnline competes with some deep-pocketed rivals in Europe, where online gambling is legal.
Lipscomb dismissed speculation that the current poker craze has reached its zenith and may soon decline. Such talk has been swirling throughout the industry for years, he said.
"I've been hearing that since we started. It doesn't surprise me at all " Lipscomb said. "(Poker is) extraordinarily cool. It's a sport now."
WPT earlier this month hired a financial adviser to explore growth alternatives, but Lipscomb declined to give further information.
In July, U.S. poker player Doyle Brunson made an unsolicited offer for WPT Enterprises, but the company said it could not get more information on the bid, which is being investigated by U.S. securities regulators. |
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