A FOUNDER of Party Gaming, the online betting giant, is moving into another high-rolling industry by backing a new hedge fund of funds firm to be launched next month.

Vikrant Bhargava, founder of Party Gaming with Anurag Dikshit, is investing in the start-up of Sirius, a new Gibraltar-based investment vehicle. It is thought that he will also be a director of the new company.

The move comes two months after Bhargava and other directors shocked the City by selling stakes in Party Gaming worth £232m only a year after its controversial flotation on the London Stock Exchange, sending the FTSE 100 company’s stock price down nearly 4% in a day.

The new fund of funds is aimed at investors with an appetite for higher risk and volatility. It will be managed by David Linsley, a former director of Cross Asset Management, a hedge fund bought last year by RAB Capital, the quoted investment group. Linsley had previously worked in prime brokerage at Lehman Brothers.

Bhargava has had several career changes, from a credit officer at the Bank of America and a British Gas analyst in the business-development division, since studying electrical engineering in India. He said he had not played poker or been inside a casino until he joined the Gibraltar company in 2000.

A close source said: “Investors look to hedge funds to achieve the higher volatility in their portfolios. But now hedge funds are becoming increasingly mainstream, this volatility — and so higher risk — is often not achieved. Sirius wants to pick managers that can generate these higher returns.”

Party Gaming, which owns the top online gambling site Partypoker.com, joined the FTSE last year with a £5.5 billion flotation. Dikshit offloaded 57m shares in June, reducing his stake to 28.95%, while Bhargava sold 67m, leaving him with 6.96%. Fellow founders Ruth Parasol and her husband, Russell DeLeon, have disposed of 33m shares, leaving each with 14.87% of the company.

Between them, the four founders still own 65.7% of Party Gaming.

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