The legal action was spurred by PartyGaming’s decision to move its own online gamblers to a dedicated poker platform. Whereas players on skin sites had previously been able to compete against a large pool of poker participants including those on competing on the PartyGaming site, following the split, competitors on the skin sites were confined to their own small circle of players.
The split dealt a serious blow to Empire which was intensified by PartyGaming’s acquisition of the other skin sites and Coral Eurobet’s decision to set up its own software platform.
But Empire is optimistic and sees its future success rest upon the two independent software platforms that it owns, Club Dice and Noble Polker, which reportedly accounted for over half of its new players in the fourth quarter of 2005.
However, how smart a move it is for Empire to take legal proceedings against the biggest player in the industry, remains to be seen.
