Shuffle Master Asia, the Macau subsidiary of U.S.-listed SHFL Entertainment, is seeking a court injunction in Macau to prevent rival Paradise Entertainment from claiming exclusive rights over the city’s lucrative live-dealer multi-game ETG market.
The conflict came to a head at this year’s G2E Asia when Macau customs officials forced SHFL to drape the games in contention. It took a full day before a compromise could be reached and the games could be displayed.
In the latest salvo in a dispute between the two companies that dates back to 2009, the new injunction aims to restrain Hong Kong-listed Paradise, parent company of electronic table games maker LT Game, and its subsidiaries from “making any representation or expression on any monopoly right” in regard to the games.
Observers are skeptical about the outcome, however.
“At this point, expectations do not include any e-tables in Macau for SHFL, in our view,” wrote one analyst. “We think SHFL will seemingly be able to place games in the market but we suspect it will take a long while as LT doesn’t seem interested in settling and the legal proceedings could take a while to play out.”
