Just last month PartyGaming announced that it was moving its PartyPoker brand and players to a newly integrated operating platform and the introduction of new games in the first half of 2006. It is now in the process of buying or blowing out the competition in a move to consolidate. The biggest Internet gaming operator in the world has said that it is buying rival MultiPoker, a top Scandinavian site with over 255,000 registered players and has made a preliminary approach to buy beleaguered Empire Online. PartyGaming is also making IntertopsPoker an affiliate and taking control of the company for the next 15 months, buying the player database.

Empire Online, which was floated in September at considerably less than originally estimated after a PartyGaming profits warning, suffered another setback when PartyGaming announced that it would end its formal financial links with ‘skins’, websites that direct online gambling traffic to operators. It is thought that PartyGaming would be prepared to pay around US$695 million for Empire but with analysts predicting a 40% reduction in the number of its players, PartyGaming may not need to buy the site if other Empire players move their accounts.

PartyGaming shares have started to recover from the dive they took after the initial IPO stock exchange euphoria was dampened by the profit warning. Growth in its online poker was not reaching the expected numbers, and share value was down as low as 75p after rising rapidly from the original float to institutional investors at 116p. At present worth around 92p, PartyGaming is moving to consolidate the fragmented online gaming industry. Its business strategy is clear and should ensure that the world’s biggest Internet gaming operator remains just that. (E-11.11.05)

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