Party to Cut Staff in Gibraltar

As PartyGaming continues to reposition its operation following its United States withdrawal, the company has confirmed with IGamingNews that job cuts will be made at its Gibraltar headquarters.

John Shepherd, director of corporate communications, could not release the number of planned redundancies but said that, in the wake, new roles are to be created.

"This isn't just about taking headcount out, this is about repositioning PartyGaming for the future," Mr. Shepherd told IGN by telephone this afternoon.

When asked about the nature of the new roles, he replied that for competitive reasons he could not disclose the company's plans.

"Other gaming groups are also going to have to reposition themselves in a changing market, and I'd rather not let them see how we're doing it before we've done it," he said.

According to The Gibraltar Chronicle, which broke the story this morning, PartyGaming employs approximately 320 people in the small, fiercely British colony at the tip of Southern Spain.

Mr. Shepherd attributed the redundancies -- in part -- to the hit PartyGaming absorbed after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act took effect in October 2006.

"The fact is that the American market was predominantly our business, so we've had to change and the industry's changed," he reflected.

"What you've got are sites still open in the United States," he went on, "who are now spending their marketing dollars that they get from their U.S. customers in the European market. So what it's created is an unlevel playing field, and that's what we've been up against."

Looking ahead, Mr. Shepherd exuded the same competitive-minded optimism as was expressed in the company's recent first-half results, which placed heavy emphasis on its soon-to-be relaunched poker platform and accompanying network licensing model.

"We've made our intentions clear that we want to have the largest poker network," he said. "We'll be looking at some companies to join our poker network, and don’t forget -- we know how to do this, because we had a network back up until October 2005."