Who is trying to take over Empire Online?

Empire Online, which has successfully ridden the internet poker boom without dealing a hand of poker itself, yesterday became the target of a possible £700m-plus bid battle.

The Guardian reports that Empire revealed it had received a merger proposal. However, the suitor is understood not to be PartyGaming, which is Empire's biggest customer and until yesterday was regarded as the only likely bidder.

Instead, the approach is thought to have come from Sportingbet, which owns the Paradise Poker website. If so, it would represent a direct attack on PartyGaming's huge Party Poker site and may trigger a counter-bid from the industry's biggest operator.

It the suitor is Paradise Poker, it could trigger an interesting and for EO profitable) bidding war for the significant resources of Empire.