The Israeli buisiness newspaper Israel Globes reported that things were looking up for Noam Lanir’s Empire Online group.
In a trading update taking in the last quarter of 2005, the firm said that it expects to return profits in excess of $50 million for the year 2005.
The company stated that its net gaming revenue for the fourth quarter of 2005 was $22.5 million, compared with $22 million in the fourth quarter of 2004, and $31.3 million in the third quarter of 2005.
Net gaming revenues across all gaming platforms (excluding Empire Poker) in the fourth quarter of 2005 were $12.4 million, an increase of 41 percent over the third quarter of 2005.
Empire Online saw total real money, new player signups across all platforms growing by 49,788.
The company noted that this performance came in a quarter when Empire Poker’s rate of new player signups and active player base was adversely impacted by PartyGaming distancing itself from former associated “skins”