It was recently announced that Party Gaming had entered into a three-year agreement with Fueps, one of the leading casual games operators in Italy. This agreement stated that Party Gaming would provide the online poker services for the company. The move makes Fueps, via 4A – The Poker Suite, a part of the Party Gaming conglomerate that now contains PartyPoker and INTRALOT. PartyPoker, per Italian gaming laws, provides its popular online poker outlet as well as an online casino service that block those outside of Italy from playing, while allowing those inside the European country to play legally.
With the addition of Fueps to the Party Gaming portfolio, CEO Jim Ryan seemed to be pleased with the recent acquisition: “Fueps is our fifth business-to-business deal this year. It is an excellent addition to our Italian poker network. This agreement is consistent with our aim to establish a strong presence in the Italian poker market and to be well-placed to take advantage of the further deregulation of online gaming that is already planned to take place in Italy over the next few months.”
In addition to welcoming new players from Italy to the Party Gaming fold, last week saw an update to its popular online poker platform. Probably the most thrilling change for PartyPoker players is the introduction of a table stacking console. This new feature, which is currently in Beta testing by players on the site, allows users to navigate through tables that are stacked on top of each other via a special console. PartyPoker will be garnering feedback from players as to whether to make it a permanent part of its software.
Much like the other top networks in the online poker world, PartyPoker has also introduced the synchronized break system. Tournaments will break for five minutes at 55 minutes past every hour. This will help players who play in multiple tournaments simultaneously by providing that valuable break every hour across all tournaments not only on PartyPoker, but also on other online poker networks.
PartyPoker has reworked its player statistics to make them more comprehensive and provide more information across a wider range of games. Statistics will now be offered in all game types, including High-Low variations, and will also be gathered across multiple client sessions. Finally, some tournaments now have a late registration period that can be as deep as six levels and there is a more visible “un-register time.”
PartyPoker has been keeping its product in prime shape since its departure from the American market in 2006. This departure has caused the once dominant fixture in online poker to slide down to fourth place in the industry behind PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and the iPoker Network, according to PokerScout.com.
