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

[Uglyowl]

It's Paradise Poker.. shocked me!

http://news.independent.co.uk/busine...icle310393.ece


PartyGaming, the newly floated £6bn online gaming group, will face pressure this week to reveal whether it plans to spark an £800m-plus takeover battle with a rival offer for Empire Online, the internet poker operator.

Sportingbet, which operates the Paradise Poker.com site, will this morning confirm that it was the mystery suitor behind a £790m cash-and-shares approach to Empire on Friday.

Although PartyGaming and Empire have a close relationship - Empire is a marketing company that drives punters on to other gaming sites - insiders at the world's biggest internet gaming group played down the significance of that commercial partnership.

Just 3 per cent of PartyGaming's total revenues are generated by Empire, according to the group's listing prospectus. By contrast, Empire's biggest partner by far is PartyGaming. The marketing specialist, known as a "skin" in the gaming industry because its EmpirePoker.com site wraps itself around its rivals' technology, makes money by getting a share of the winnings from each customer it drives onto PartyGaming's software.

Sportingbet, a direct rival of PartyGaming, is keen to acquire Empire to rob its biggest competitor of the stream of new customers Empire puts its way. Internet poker sites rely on having a liquid pool of high-rolling users so that anyone looking to join a game can do so immediately.

PartyGaming's chief executive, Richard Segal, will be pressed to confirm whether the group intends to show its hand when he reports the company's maiden interim results tomorrow. Earnings before interest and tax profits are expected to be about $245.5m (£133m) on sales of $440m.

Since Empire Online listed on AIM three months ago, poker fever has swept the City. PartyGaming is set to join the FTSE 100 this week with a higher market valuation than stalwarts such as Marks & Spencer. 888.com, the world's largest online casino by number of visitors, launched a £700m initial public offering last week.

With much of the highly fragmented industry still in private hands, internet casino operators are keen to have a public quoting to raise their profile and enough cash to mount an acquisition spree. Empire's admission that it had received a takeover approach so soon after listing triggered a sharp rise in the sector.

Sportingbet, which had net cash of £19m in June, made a small bolt-on acquisition last month, while Empire made two. All three companies declined to comment.

PartyGaming, the newly floated £6bn online gaming group, will face pressure this week to reveal whether it plans to spark an £800m-plus takeover battle with a rival offer for Empire Online, the internet poker operator.

Sportingbet, which operates the Paradise Poker.com site, will this morning confirm that it was the mystery suitor behind a £790m cash-and-shares approach to Empire on Friday.

Although PartyGaming and Empire have a close relationship - Empire is a marketing company that drives punters on to other gaming sites - insiders at the world's biggest internet gaming group played down the significance of that commercial partnership.

Just 3 per cent of PartyGaming's total revenues are generated by Empire, according to the group's listing prospectus. By contrast, Empire's biggest partner by far is PartyGaming. The marketing specialist, known as a "skin" in the gaming industry because its EmpirePoker.com site wraps itself around its rivals' technology, makes money by getting a share of the winnings from each customer it drives onto PartyGaming's software.

Sportingbet, a direct rival of PartyGaming, is keen to acquire Empire to rob its biggest competitor of the stream of new customers Empire puts its way. Internet poker sites rely on having a liquid pool of high-rolling users so that anyone looking to join a game can do so immediately.
PartyGaming's chief executive, Richard Segal, will be pressed to confirm whether the group intends to show its hand when he reports the company's maiden interim results tomorrow. Earnings before interest and tax profits are expected to be about $245.5m (£133m) on sales of $440m.

Since Empire Online listed on AIM three months ago, poker fever has swept the City. PartyGaming is set to join the FTSE 100 this week with a higher market valuation than stalwarts such as Marks & Spencer. 888.com, the world's largest online casino by number of visitors, launched a £700m initial public offering last week.

With much of the highly fragmented industry still in private hands, internet casino operators are keen to have a public quoting to raise their profile and enough cash to mount an acquisition spree. Empire's admission that it had received a takeover approach so soon after listing triggered a sharp rise in the sector.

Sportingbet, which had net cash of £19m in June, made a small bolt-on acquisition last month, while Empire made two. All three companies declined to comment.

[toss]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

[Jurollo]

[ QUOTE ]
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe they will make Empire slow and buggy, one can only hope.
~Justin

[Jurollo]

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

[toss]

Haha imagine Paradise transfers all of Party Poker Players to the Paradise server alone. No r******k, 3 tables max, slow software, and 75k players on at the same time. The freakin system will blow up.

[Greg J]

They would obviously have to have an overdue massive overhaul to their software if this were to work. As long as I can still get a hotdog I'm cool though.

[StellarWind]

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

[/ QUOTE ]
It's hard for me to understand how Empire could become a Paradise skin. I think much of the value of the Empire business is the relationship with Party. What percentage of the player volume would actually follow Empire over to Paradise? How much of Empire's precious affiliate network would hold together?

In other words, is it really worth 800M pounds to make Empire into a Paradise skin?

But so far SportingBet has impressed me as incompetent in their handling of Paradise. So even if it is a bad idea it could happen anyway.

[Losing all]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


In other words, is it really worth 800M pounds to make Empire into a Paradise skin?

[/ QUOTE ]

If that's the plan, it would be beyond stupid. OTOH I can't imagine party not finding a way to fuq them for buying into the network. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how it could possibly work out for them.

[scrub]

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

[/ QUOTE ]
It's hard for me to understand how Empire could become a Paradise skin. I think much of the value of the Empire business is the relationship with Party. What percentage of the player volume would actually follow Empire over to Paradise? How much of Empire's precious affiliate network would hold together?

In other words, is it really worth 800M pounds to make Empire into a Paradise skin?

But so far SportingBet has impressed me as incompetent in their handling of Paradise. So even if it is a bad idea it could happen anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure if internet poker is a very difficult business for consultant types to understand, or if it's hard for a niche community like twoplustwo to have the perspective to understand what factors really drive site traffic.

scrub

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

[/ QUOTE ]


[/ QUOTE ]

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.