BY TOM SOMACH

In what looks like a desperate effort to regain some of the income it lost when it stopped servicing U.S. online poker players, the company that owns Party Poker is taking online sports wagers.

PartyGaming PLC, parent company of online poker room Party Poker (www.partypoker.com), recently opened an online sports betting site called Party Bets (www.partybets.com).

An announcement on the Party Poker website states: “Horses, soccer, hockey, boxing, cricket–you name it, we’ve got it. We’re proud to announce the launch of our latest addition to the PartyGaming stable–PartyBets.com. PartyBets.com is an exclusive sportsbook, offering you the widest range of odds and markets available. Watch out over the next few months for many more exciting PartyBets.com developments, including multi-language translations, multi-currency stakes and much more.”

A visit to the Party Bets website reveals the website accepts online wagers on baseball, basketball, ice hockey, American football, Australian-rules football, soccer, snooker, pool, boxing, cricket, handball, volleyball, auto racing, horse racing, golf, tennis and winter sports.

The website also allows bettors to wager on non-sporting events.

For example, bettors can wager on entertainment propositions, such as who will win the next edition of the American television program “Big Brother.”

Bettors can also wager on political props, such as who will be the winner of the next French or Russian presidential elections, or what party will prevail in the next election in the United Kingdom.

Curiously, though, no betting is available on the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

And, perhaps even more curiously, the website makes no mention of whether U.S. residents are allowed to place wagers on the site.

Party Poker was once the most popular Internet poker room in the world.

But after the U.S. government passed anti-online gambling legislation last year–the Unlawful Internet Gambling Prohibition Act or UIGEA–Party Poker discontinued service to customers in the U.S.

The decision to ban Americans cost Party Poker 80% of its overall total business.

Earlier this month, PartyGaming PLC announced that the company’s annual net profits for 2006 were just $128 million, down $165 million or a whopping 56% from the $293 million in annual net profits the company recorded in 2005.

In addition to Party Poker and Party Bets, PartyGaming PLC also operates Party Casino (www.partycasino.com), Party Bingo (www.partybingo.com) and Party Gammon (www.partygammon.com).

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)