CR83-p28-Poker:SJC-Casino Review 23/8/09 12:04 Page 1
internationalcasinoreview
Dusk Till Dawn announces
new tournament
Poker
Dusk Till Dawn, the UK poker club, has announced a
new monthly event. The 20Twenty has £40,000 in
guarantees and comprises of two identical events
running once a month. The £20,000 guaranteed,
ONLINE
£115 event involves a 10,000 starting stack. The
first 20Twenty takes place on October 24 and 25.
Casino Review: Who are the main players
in the online poker market?
Simon Holliday:
Still
in online poker at present, none were originally land based
casinos, so as yet we have not seen a land based operator
become a leading online poker company. However, as regu-
Although there are currently just over 550 sites spread lated markets open up, we would expect to see land based
over approximately 40 platforms the vast majority of the
activity is already confined to a dozen or so platforms. The
concentration is such that the leading two platforms, Pok-
erStars and FullTilt, currently account for approximately
more to
operators playing an increasingly important role.
CR: What would you value the potential
US online poker market?
60 per cent of the real money online poker market in SH: We are expecting that under the current status quo,
revenue terms. The leading platforms remain as they have
been for a number of years, in fact we have seen very little
movement between them in the past couple of years.
come
i.e. with no further seizures/incitements by the Depart-
ment of Justice that the US Internet poker market will be
worth US$1.6bn this year or around 36 per cent of the
They are PokerStars, Fulltilt, iPoker (Playtech), PartyPoker, global market. It has been a double whammy for the listed
Cereus Network, Ongame Network (Bwin), Everest (Giga
Media), Microgaming, IPN (G2-Gtech) and Cake Poker
Network. In addition Gioco Digital’s Italian only site
would now be in the leading ten platforms by activity.
from
operators not only did they lose up to 70 per cent of their
revenues overnight but, particularly in poker, the liquidity
and marketing budgets enjoyed by the private operators
that chose to continue to accept US players has led to an
erosion of their non-US market share ever since. For
CR: What is the online poker market
worth in terms of revenue?
Gavin Kelleher: Globally H2 expect the online poker
online
instance, PartyGaming enjoyed a market share in the
region of 25 per cent of the online poker market immedi-
ately prior to UIGEA being signed into law. Today their
market to generate gross revenues of US$4.6bn this year if the share has fallen to just over seven per cent.
current status quo is maintained. This would represent an
increase of just over 18 per cent on 2008 following August
becoming the second busiest month on record. H2’s analysis has
shown that the impact of the seizures from the two payment
poker
CR: How optimistic are you of
legislation in the US?
SH: Given the fiscal pressures and growing support we
processors in late June of this year was confined to PokerStars would not be surprised to see something happening on the
and that activity had recovered by mid-July. Since this time Poker- ground in California by the end of next year with between
Stars activity has reached levels only ever surpassed on the site The global online poker market has two and five other states following in 2011/12. However,
during its 25th billionth hand promotion in February of this year.
relatively few key platforms and without
nothing is guaranteed in politics especially where gaming
CR: Which countries have the most online
further deregulation more consolidation
is involved. At the Federal level it might be even more diffi-
cult for Frank and Menendez this time round particularly as
poker players?
will occur, but there is still space for
they pursue two separate bills and with all the other busi-
GK:The US continues to account for the most players
land-based casinos to get in on the act.
ness Frank is involved in as a result of the financial crisis. H2
of any single country followed by the UK, Italy, Germany,
Simon Holliday and
believe federal legislation has more chances of success in
Canada, Sweden, Australia, France and Spain. When 2010/11 and that it would be 2012/13 at the earliest before
looking at the penetration rates per adult population the
Gavin Kelleher of gambling
there is any action on the ground in respect of online poker
remaining Scandinavian nations Denmark, Finland and consultancy firm H2 Gambling Capital being able to be offered across state lines.
Norway as well as Iceland also figure very prominently.
gave their views to Phil Martin.
CR: What is the potential for
CR: Has the online poker market online poker across Asia?
reached saturation? SH:There is no doubt that younger Asians love the game
SH: We would not see the market as saturated just yet and it has tremendous potential given the extremely
though it is clearly mature in a number of areas, such as high propensity to gamble across the region combined
the UK and Scandinavia. However, the continued growth with a lack of legal opportunities. However, we have
of PokerStars and FullTilt has demonstrated that the always said that if Asia was that easy to conquer it would
combination of liquidity and marketing spend can still have been achieved a number of years ago, as the poten-
attach more players. There are still a number of geogra- tial is many times that of the US. The barriers to entry
phies which have yet to be fully exploited including remain and include, lack of payment methods, multiple
Eastern Europe and South America and added to that languages and currencies, different gambling culture,
there is the prospect of regulation in a number of Euro- prohibitive regulation, etc. Specialist sportsbooks have
pean nations such as France and Spain. H2 expect the always had much more success in accessing the Asian
Italian online poker market (onshore and offshore) to be market than gaming providers.
five times what it was as recently as 2007 when it was
offshore only; and this is only with onshore tournaments CR: Are there any other markets which will
available at the moment. So with online poker seeming come to the fore in online poker in the
central to the plans of any government considering coming years?
deregulation there is significant potential upside. GK: We expect online poker to continue to develop in
Eastern Europe and Central/South America could be inter-
CR: What makes a good online poker site? esting. However, the biggest opportunities in the short to
GK: There are many factors that make a good online poker medium term will be markets, which regulate; i.e. France,
site from the point of view of a player though they don’t Spain and the US. The key for operators will be to find the
always match the interest of the operator. Particular ones that right model to enter the market and the right partners.
we would highlight as most important are its speed of play, Our experience is that regulators have a tendency to
liquidity, stability of the platform and ease of navigation favour local firms when it comes to setting the rules.
around the tables. Players would also point to the importance
how competitive it is on price (i.e. rake, rakeback, sign-up CR: What is the current state of play for
bonuses etc). Other factors which players judge as important online poker in Europe?
are the look and feel of the site, and the processing payments SH: As recently as a year ago a number of commentators and
methods, ease of payouts, etc. While cash games are generally operators were writing off online poker in Europe. The market
more popular than tournaments and typically generate over was thought to be too crowded and mature. However, even in
70 per cent of revenues, tournaments still play an important the face of the recession and competition from other, less
role in attracting players via the lottery size guaranteed mature online gaming products, the sector has revived during
prices. In fact, there are many players that only play tourna- the past 12 months even though much of the growth has been
ments, so they remain an important offering. driven by the high marketing spend of PokerStars and FullTilt.
Simon Holliday: GK: In Europe the game does not have the same history
CR: Are any land based casinos doing the online poker that it does in the US so we always expected growth rates
well in the online poker space? market is not to be more erratic as new markets are developed. We are
GK: Online and bricks and mortar casinos have the poten- saturated just expecting higher growth for European poker this year
tial to complement each other as qualification tournaments yet although it is than was achieved in 2008. However, a key issue for the
may be staged online or prizes/bonuses can be awarded that clearly mature in listed companies is that most of this continues to be
can be redeemed in the bricks and mortar facility. H2 believe a number of realised by the US facing sites.
the market has only scratched the surface of the true poten- areas, such as
tial here with few bricks and mortar operators with major the UK and
For more info see:
interests online at this time. Looking at the top five operators Scandinavia.
www.h2gc.com
28 September 2009 • pokerreport
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