Since PartyGaming's announcement last week that it was taking steps to separate itself from marketing partners known as "skins," Empire Online, the most notable skin in the PartyGaming saga, yesterday issued its second profit warning. With Empire Online's online poker players no longer getting to share in the millions of players on the PartyGaming network, Empire admitted that it was seeing a slowdown in the rake created by its white label online poker site, Empire Poker.

This slowdown, Empire continued to state, has led the company to expect profits to be about 10 percent less than previous market forecasts for 2005. Analysts, in turn, modified their forecasts accordingly, slashing previous expectations.

Despite Empire Online's deceleration, the company stressed that PartyGaming's move has impacted the existing player base, and not Empire's ability to attract new customers to its network. Empire stated that new player signups across the network stayed strong, particularly thanks to its relatively newly expanded empire, which now includes online poker site Noble Poker and online casino Club Dice.

CEO Noam Lanir stated in the profit warning release, “The trend rate of growth at Empire Online remains strong and we will continue to grow ahead of the industry. Due to the talent of the team in place at Empire Online and the opportunities for organic growth and consolidation in the industry I am very confident of the enduring future of this company."

In the online gaming industry, the faltering of one company is felt throughout the industry. Thus following Empire Online's profit warning, the shares of other e-gaming companies, including PartyGaming, ukbetting and 888 took a tumble, as well.

Source:  Poker777 Staff

Thursday, 20 October 2005