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Party Poker Parent Says Job Cuts Likely in Gibraltar and UK
Wed, Sep 10th, 2008 @ 12:00am
PartyGaming, parent to online poker site Party Poker, made further clarifications regarding the extent of possible job losses at its Gibraltar and UK operations, while news emerges that its poker offering may be losing ground against the opposition as the vital post-summer season begins.
Contrary to recent newspaper reports suggesting that all 320 staff in the company's Gibraltar office were involved in a 60-day consultation period that was expected to lead to 100 job cuts (click here), a spokesperson for PartyGaming said that any job losses had yet to be decided upon, and that the final figure would be "nowhere near" the numbers already mentioned.
However, the spokesperson did confirm that staff at the company's UK headquarters were also now involved in a 30-day consultation period.
Eventual cuts will come in the areas of customer support and IT located in Gibraltar, noted GamblingCompliance. Some customer support jobs will be transferred to Bulgaria, while IT jobs are likely to move to India. Also, some aspects of the finance department are likely to be affected.
"The
market has shifted. We are on an unlevel playing field, and we are trying
to compete," noted the spokesperson. "But the figure mentioned is
nowhere near the figure being mentioned in the Gibraltarian papers."
The spokesperson added that Party was not alone considering downsizing in some areas. "We are not the only ones going through changes like this, both in Gibraltar and elsewhere. The industry changed post-US and it is changing again."
One analyst quoted by Gambling Compliance suggested that the "shake-up" proposed by the new management, under the leadership of new chief executive Jim Ryan, "isn't necessarily a bad thing”.
POKER LOSING GROUND
According to PokerSiteScout, PartyPoker is falling behind the competition as the online poker market recovers from the seasonal late summer downturn.
The website pointed out that while sites such as Everest, Microgaming, PKR, and Ladbrokes saw player numbers rise between 4 percent and 10 percent in the first week of September, that Party Poker actually saw its number continue to decline, down 3 percent from the previous week.
The Party spokesperson responded that the PokerSiteScout site "doesn't explain all the numbers". He added, "It is not a pure measure."
In its last results statement at the end of August, Party said its poker operation had been hit by technical problems during the month, leading to a continuation of a "worse than expected" performance since the end of June. Jim Ryan said at the time the company needed to "revitalise" the product.
As part of this, it is thought the company will be launching its third-generation poker product within the next two weeks.
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