PartyGaming co-founder cuts stake in £190m sell off

Anurag Dikshit, the billionaire co-founder of PartyGaming, is offloading two-thirds of his stake in the online gambling firm raising around £190 million in the process.

He was today selling up to 75 million shares, cutting his stake from 28% to 9.5%, at a price market sources put at 250p a share. Goldman Sachs handled the deal, a bookbuild to institutional investors.

In December 2008, Dikshit pleaded guilty to violating US internet laws and agreed to forfeit $300 million (£183 million).

Dikshit will be sentenced in December, but is not expected to go to prison because of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

US gambling law reforms in 2006 made it illegal for PartyGaming to trade there.

Dikshit still holds 39 million shares, leaving him as the second-biggest shareholder PartyGaming shares tumbled on the news, down 36p to 247½p.