What´s happening at Amaya Gaming?

Soaring share prices and a remarkable trading volume on Amaya Gaming late Friday – the stock surged almost 14 percent to close at $10.25 on trading volumes five times the normal daily average – have triggered speculation that something positive is on the go at the online gambling software provider.

With rumours circulating rapidly despite the holiday weekend, the Calvin Ayre information site claimed that it had been told by unidentified sources that the big news could be a deal between Amaya and Pokerstars, the industry’s biggest online poker operator owned by the Isle of Man-based Rational Group.

Neither company has responded to requests for comment.

The CA report speculates that despite the disparity in size and capital of the two companies, such a deal might provide a solution enabling Pokerstars to enter the regulated US market under new ownership if a reverse takeover were engineered.

Amaya already has a New Jersey licence, and Pokerstars has a hung agreement with an Atlantic City land casino operator and an application for an online gambling licence in the state that is dormant but still live (see previous reports).

Such an arrangement may be the answer to New Jersey reservations about licensing the present Pokerstars-Rational Group senior management…and the tempting prospect of a regulated and licensed California market remains on the horizon – Pokerstars has an alliance with the Morongo tribe and cardrooms there.

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