Playtech is making strategic moves to shift its online casino focused software operations more toward the online poker gaming sector. Lending to this new strategy was the company's recent partial purchase of Tribeca Tables, which specializes in online poker software development. Putting up $75 million for stake in Tribeca Tables' business, Playtech acquired several well-known poker sites as part of the deal, including Paddy Power Poker, Expect and VC Poker.

As a direct result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act, Playtech pulled out of the U.S. facing online gambling market (as did all of Playtech's online casino licensees), thus resulting in a major loss for the company and a dire need to reallocate all their resources. Although it will invariably take time for Playtech to reach the same level of gaming revenue that was primarily coming in from U.S. facing online casinos, things are already beginning to turn for the better. Third quarter results showed 53% of company revenue was generated by non-U.S. players (a 4% increase from the same time period last year).

According to Playtech Chief Executive, Avigur Zmora, the deal with Tribeca Tables is a "landmark" milestone for Playtech, now giving them rights to say they are one of the world's leading online poker networks with no U.S. facing interests. As for the rest of Playtech's online casino licensees, many of them were already marketing their platforms in several different languages, and so have been able to stay afloat with European and Asian gaming business as of yet.

The deal could potentially end up costing Playtech more than $75 million - which if that happened would not be a bad thing for either company. Using an estimate that Tribeca will produce approximately $16 million from the beginning of the migration date in the upcoming year, the two agreed that a purchase price of $75 million was appropriate. If, however, Tribeca brings in more revenue than expected, Playtech will correspondingly pay more, with a maximum consideration of $139 million (based on a $29 million gain). With numbers like these, a loss in U.S. online casino revenue will be greatly offset in the coming year.