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Online RoundupProfiles in Profitabilitywww.pokerroom.comIf you were a part of the great Internetboom of the late-'90s-or knew some-one who was afflicted-then you'veseen Patrick Selin's office before. On thethird story of a building abuttingStockholm's Central Train Station, thecorridors are bathed in natural sunlight.Young, smiling employees-people whohaven't yet had their love for the work-place battered out of them-scurry qui-etly across the hardwood floors, amidstworkstations with ergonomically sophis-ticated chairs and vintage pinballmachines. There is an energy in the air,perhaps owing to Selin's recent appear-ance on the cover of Dagens Industri,Sweden's answer to the Wall St. Journal.

This is a company to watch. What sepa-rates this business, however, from nearlyevery Internet startup is a profit modelthat actually works. More, accurately, aprofit model that rocks. This is thehome of PokerRoom.com, one of themost popular cardrooms on the Web.

"There is a saying in Sweden," saysSelin, company president and CEO,around-faced man whose eyes alwaysseem to smile from behind his glasses."No tree grows to heaven." It's his typi-cally modest way of telling me that theincredible growth enjoyed by onlinepoker can't continue at its current lev-els. Citing the statistics to prove it, Selintells me that the virtual cardroom indus-try grew by 630 percent in 2003, only todrop to a relatively paltry 154 percent in

2004. An estimated $lO-biliion waswagered in online poker games last year.

These are the kinds of numbers thatmake PokerRoom-actually a full-servicecasino offering blackjack, roulette, evenpai gow-the 19th-most profitable busi-ness in Sweden. Under the guidance ofSelin, a veteran of the Internet bankingindustry, the site grabbed somewhere inthe neighborhood of five percent of themarket, making it the fifth-most traf-ficked poker game on the Web. Theirgoal-through a darkly funny advertis-ing campaign incorporating print andviral media-is to be number three byyear's end.

Ironically, no one who plays on

A screen shot fromwww.PokerRoom.com

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PokerRoom is actually Swedish: Whilethe country has no law against runningan Internet gambling business, its citi-zens are strictly forbidden from partici-pating in the action. Most of the site's3.2 million players come from America,England, and Canada.

Poker and theBlogosphereIt's nearly impossible to watch anevening news broadcast without somemention of a blog, perhaps the onlydevelopment threatening to unseatpoker from its spot as the most hypedpop culture phenomenon in the world.

That these worlds were destined tointersect should come as no surprise.Daniel Negreanu has a blog (www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-journal.php); sodoes Paul Phillips (extempore.livejournal.com). Many amateurs have started theirown blogs, detailing what they hopewill be a journey from novice hacker tocelebrated pro. Poker writer Mike Paulleposted reports from this year's WSOP onhis blog at PokerPages (www.pokerpages.com/blog). If the fact that Paulle's"blogging" looks virtually identical towhat he used to do under the banner of"reporting" leaves you confused as toexactly what separates a blog from, say,regularly updating a Web site, you arenot alone.

Perhaps the most interesting entrantinto the poker blogosphere, although itsnot specifically a poker blog, is the newlylaunched Oddjack (www.oddjack.com).brought to you by Gawker Media, thenetwork of affiliated bloggers responsiblefor Gawker (www.gawker.com). Defamer(www.defamer.com). and Fleshbot(www.fleshbot.com). sites dedicated toa whimsical and edgy look at all of thenutty things our society manages toobsesson, like Paris Hilton, LindsayLohan, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.Oddjack attacks the world of gamblingwith similar vengeance, unafraid to toss

13 JUN 2005 MONDAY

WSOP: More Kamikaze Blogger Reporting

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A screenshot fromwww.oddjack.com

ruthless barbs at its prey. A recentreport from an early event at this year'sWSOP included observations like "Don'tbet on Devilfish [David Ulliott] makingthe final table in this one. He looks likehe was up all night tossing back lagerswith his mates," and "Chris Moneymakermade his first appearance. No sign of

the harlot that broke up his first mar-riage." Ouch.O

Jonathan Grotenstein is co-author ofPoker: The Real Deal with Phil Gordon.His new history of the World Series ofPoker, All In, will hit the bookshelveslater this year.

PartyPoker Goes PublicOnline poker made its way into the mainstream media news headlines in late-June,when PartyGaming PLC,the company behind PartyPoker.com,hit the London StockExchange,immediately cracked the FTSE100 index, and saw share prices rise by 11 per-cent in the first day of trading. Thisdespite concern that regulators in the United States,where about 87 percent of the Gibraltar, England-basedcompany's income is derived,might soon attempt to prohibit or restrict online gaming on this sideof the pond.

PartyGaming opened on Monday, June 27, at an offer price of 116 pence ($2.12American), and rose to 129 pence ($2.35) by the end of the day. The listing is thebiggest to hit the London Stock Exchange in five years. PartyGaming claims to have a55 percent share of the worldwide online gaming market, and poker accounted for 92percent of PartyGaming's revenue in 2004.

An estimated $70-billion was vvageredin online poker games last year.