888.com wavers on stock market debut

Online poker site 888.com has made a shaky debut on the London stock exchange on its first day of trading.

888.com priced its stock at 175p for its IPO, earning the company more than £550m. However, the figure is still a far cry from its hoped-for estimate of around £700m.

During 888.com's first day as a public traded company, shares jumped to a high of 180p, only to drop to the day's low of 162p.

The shares closed the day at 170p.

The sector has suffered a loss of confidence of late, in tandem with the dip in financial performance at the original poker dot-com, PartyGaming, which saw its shares dip by more than three per cent this morning.

When Partygaming floated back in June of this year, it was hailed as one of the most significant IPOs of recent times. However, since then, the company's stock has significantly fallen in value – from 129p on its first day of trading to its current position at 84.5p, over fears the online gambling sector has been over-valued.