Last week it was Party Gaming discussing mergers with BWIN, two major players in the online gambling industry. This week, it’s 888 who’s reportedly looking at merger possibilities. According to Reuters, 888 has been fielding inquiries since the deal between Party and Bwin.

According to 888 CEO, Gigi Levy, the company is one of the biggest assets in the industry. The company hasn’t announced any intentions to merge with any other major contenders in the industry, but just the fact that they’ve announced recent inquiries is enough to turn some heads.

After the PartyGaming/Bwin merger proposal leaked to the press, Levy says “…we got a few phone calls immediately from various people. Everybody in the industry is looking and saying ‘who is the best one to merge with if we need to?’”

The nature of a merger deal is uncertain at this time due mostly to the duration of such a process. “Party and bwin took almost a year to close the deal,” Levy said, “so we don’t see anything happening imminently, but there’s definitely expressions of interest.”

888’s numbers didn’t compute too positively this July as summer weather and the World Cup are both being blamed in part, distracting a lot of 888’s customers. Shares were down 1.5% and the idea of safety in merged numbers is looking more and more enticing to a lot of online gambling companies who see the potential of $4 billion net worth – the estimated value of PartyGaming and Bwin post-merger – as a life preserver in an ever fluctuating industry.

“The pressure is now on for others to pursue consolidation or risk being left further behind,” said Nick Bartram, analyst for KBC Peel Hunt. “For 888 consolidation looks imperative and, given the bottom line performance, the group could be pursuing this from a sole position of weakness.”

888 announced earlier this week that the company earned $61 million in its second quarter across all gambling venues – poker, casino and bingo. That matches last year’s second quarter results However, poker trading is way and down it’s only the offset of growth in bingo and other new markets that are making up the slack.

888 warned shareholders in May that its year-end earnings were looking to be much lower than previous expectations, and that prediction is being realized as July revealed a 6% daily average decrease in revenue compared to previous quarter results. At its current stance, shares in 888 have dropped more than half their value compared to the start of 2010.

Along with the prospect of a projected merger, 888 has made an attempt to increase growth through partnership with Microgame to supply Italian markets with online casino products.