Leisure: PartyGaming fails to draw poker players

"Once the largest poker operator in the world, PartyGaming has been losing ground to competitors able to offer bigger tournament prize money because they attract larger player numbers. In particular, share has been ceded to a handful of rogue operators - led by privately owned Poker Stars and Full Tilt - which continue to take bets from US customers in breach of anti-online gaming laws passed in October 2006.

"PartyGaming, primarily focused on the European market, has also been losing ground to poker network providers, which operate by pooling players from smaller poker sites under licence agreements.

"...PartyGaming said its new poker player sign-ups for the six months to June 30 were down by 32% to 235,200. The number of active players slipped 7% to 62,600.

"...Poker performance since the half-year has also disappointed.

"...Some analysts said they were also concerned that revenues from PartyGaming's casino arm appeared to have fallen sharply this month..."