The "mystery" bidder for Empire revealed (not who you think)

[solucky]

lets wait and see



Sportingbet said it had discussed the subject with Empire Online. Similarly to a press release by Empire Online, Sportingbet said the talks were at a very early stage and there was no guarantee that they would lead to an offer.

[ackid]

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What does this mean for our rake on Empire?

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rakeback?

no mas

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That would really suck!!

[GrannyMae]

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What does this mean for our rake on Empire?

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rakeback?

no mas

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That would really suck!!

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y?

still 4 skins to choose from.

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The real question is would empire stay on the party network after this, or become a paradise skin?

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I would be more inclined to believe that Empire would remain on the Party Gaming network rather than switching to Paradise's network. I don't think Empire's current player base would take the transition very well from Party to Paradise. The fact that Party and Paradise are industry riverals/competitors does make things more interesting tho.

[J_B]

If Empire remained on the Party network, it will allow paradis to reap the benefits of the Party marketing and name. Simply by being on that network, other sites are making $$$ off the rake generated by players on Party itself. mor players, more action, more rake.

[Ro-me-ro]

Right, but obviously the rake generated by a player at Empire at the moment is split 3 - ways. Some % to Party, Some % for rakeback and finally whatever is left over Empire get to keep.

I would find it very hard to believe that SportingBet would buy out Empire, and then continue to allow Party to receive some of the profits when they have another Poker site they could route the players to.

Sure some of the players would probably jump ship, but assuming they canned rakeback they would only need to make 1/2 of the players play on Paradise skin to make more money than staying on Party network with the added benefit of screwing Party out of some money in the process...

Very interesting [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Right, but obviously the rake generated by a player at Empire at the moment is split 3 - ways. Some % to Party, Some % for rakeback and finally whatever is left over Empire get to keep.

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I'd also be interested to know what percent of Empire's revenue/profit is lost due to RB, and what percentage of their player base receives RB. I'm guessing that it's not very high.
Another point to consider is that if Paradise took over and cut RB, then they would probably be losing money rather than increasing profits, since most of the players who are currently on a RB program at Empire would just leave altogether. Even though Empire makes a smaller percentage off their RB players than their non-RB players, I would be surprized if they didn't make more overall from their RB players than their non-RB players (this is assuming that RB players have a significantly higher average MGR than non-RB players). Even if that's not true, the RB players are still profitable nonetheless, and thus cutting the RB program at empire would be -EV for them.

[daveymck]

From what I have read Empire also have other income streams not just the rake on Party there seems to be other elements to the business that maybe are not as public domain as the actual skin, otherwise Empire would just be a glorified large affiliate.

I dont think sporting bet are just wanting to buy the skin there must be other things they are looking at that will add to their current business.

[RollaJ]

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otherwise Empire would just be a glorified large affiliate.


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I thought thats what they are..... I guess I may be wrong though.

Wonder what a sight like PSO makes a year, their a hell of a glorified affiliate too

[daveymck]

They recently bought 3 casino sites (with 70,000 users) and a bingo site as well as noble poker, but does seem most money comes from Party and 888 not sure how they get traffic to them though, just read the investors briefing.