Threadwatch.org ran a story today, Affiliate site sells for £700 million, about Empire Online, a UK affiliate site potentially being sold for £700 million pounds.
The business of Empire Online is described as follows in the Guardian Unlimited:
Empire operates as a “skin”, or white-label, poker and casino site and is the most successful of this new breed of online gambling companies.
In effect it is a marketing business that recruits online gamblers and then directs them to third-party websites, such as Party Poker and 888.com, where the poker and casino games are played.
Empire makes its money by claiming commission from the host operators – in some cases, this commission is thought to be over half the revenue generated by individual players. Payments from PartyGaming represent two-thirds of its revenue.
I’ve got to wonder if this story will spawn a thousand eBay auctions by newbies that are itching to cash out on their banner farms. Ugh.