Online gambling split personality at bwin?

The Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment group’s share price received a moderate boost Tuesday following a Financial Times report that the group was considering the formation of a separate entity to tackle the legally “grey” online gambling markets its management has hitherto publicly eschewed.

Bwin.Party has made much of its regulated markets only focus and quality over quantity business model this year, and its performance has suffered from the switch to a more restrictive policy.

The FT suggests that the company is planning to hedge its options by forming a company to handle “grey” markets, but offered no details or sources for its information.

Earlier this year Bwin announced that it was pulling out of some 18 such markets in a move that was widely interpreted as part of a ‘clean up’ initiative to better the group’s chances in the evolving online gambling market in the United States.

It recently coughed up $15 million to placate the state of Kentucky, and is known to be involved in US partnerships in Nevada and New Jersey