CR83-p34-Poker:SJC-Casino Review 23/8/09 15:10 Page 1
internationalcasinoreview
ICP to buy PokerTek shares
PokerTek has announced it will issue 565,000
Poker
shares to supplier ICP Electronics. Mark Roberson,
PokerTek’s acting CEO and chief financial officer,
said ICP has provided electronic design and
engineering services to his company, and they had
discussed stronger ties between the two.
COMMENT
Poker riding high
just three years ago but by
today have turned its capital
city Riga into a real interna-
“quote
tional poker scene.
We are holding several
in Baltic states
international poker tourna-
unquote”
ments a year that are organ-
ised by Olympic Casino itself,
in addition large poker tour- “We have signed a number of sig-
naments are organised in our nificant licence agreements in the
While the poker venues in co-operation with first half of 2009, such as with
room in Olympic
Nordicbet, Ladbrokes, Poker- Betfair and NetPlay TV, that will
Casino Tallinn,
Stars and many other online start to deliver additional revenue
poker sites. streams towards the end of the
Estonia, may not I believe that the popular- year which, in addition to the posi-
bring in as much
ity of both land-based and tive impact of William Hill Online
revenue as the slots,
online poker will keep migrating all of its casino activity
growing hand-in-hand. to Playtech’s platform, provide
corporate poker
Regular professional play new initiatives for growth in the
manager Priit
will be done mostly online medium term. Playtech enjoys a
due to the large variety of solid pipeline of new licensees and
Pajumaa explains
faster games and possibility exciting business opportunities
why they remain an
to play many games simulta- ahead in 2009 with operators in
important part of the
neously. However, online soon-to-be-regulated jurisdic-
satellite tournaments to live tions, in addition to various other
product mix. events are increasingly online gaming operators.”
popular. There will always be Playtech CEO,
socialscene comes from casino table hall have a couple of drinks. Esto- pean Poker Tour, PokerNews a lot of people who want to Mor Weizer
EASTERN EUROPE and slots. Poker is more of a nians read about poker quite Cup and European Masters play live poker, play face to
question of image, creating a actively and educate them- of Poker. face and socialise with “Novomatic’s experience has
Olympic Casino opened its very nice environment in our selves well, but the Estonian In all the Baltic countries, others. Live poker is also shown, that some of the top
first poker club in Tallinn six casinos, and it is a great way poker community is still not legislation sees poker as a more attractive for new games like American Poker have a
years ago and its popularity to attract new customers. very big compared to our casino game with the same players and definitely more lifecycle of sometimes more than
has grown rapidly during the The most popular part of neighbouring countries high taxes per each table, interesting to watch. 10 years and their success is not
years. The number of players poker in Estonia is tourna- Finland, Sweden or and legal poker games can Thanks to our good rela- easy to repeat or even top. And it
in our poker room has been ments. As most of our poker Denmark, however, it’s only be organised by licensed tions with international is definitely not a game’s graphics,
increasing by about 25-30 players play for fun, their growing steadily. A few Eston- casino operators. This is the poker magazines, one of our artwork or branding that creates a
per cent every year. However, main preference is low- ian players have also same in Latvia and Lithuania. next steps is to introduce our ‘legendary’ game: the ingredients
daily tournaments and cash stakes multi-table tourna- achieved many good posi- Attendance of both locals poker clubs even more to to design such a legend are one of
games bring less than 10 per ments. They come to have a tions this year in interna- and foreigners has grown our European players as a the best kept secrets of every
cent of our income and the good time, socialise with tional live poker festivals equally well. Foreign poker great destination for interna- game development. More than
majority of the income still other players and perhaps such as PokerStars.com Euro- players ‘discovered’ Latvia tional events and holidays. two decades ago Novomatic
created a poker legend through
innovation. Today, and onwards
into the future, Novomatic remains
Media consulting comes to the fore
committed to continuing innova-
tion and development of products
that excite and captivate poker
devotees, worldwide.”
As online and land-based
shows, forums, social media and affili- Initially, it tended to be small to speaking to a lot of different publics Max Lindenberg,
poker routes continue to
ate sites have expanded massively. medium-sized operators who did not and as the media grows and the Novomatic
Poker is a game of information - have the in-house resources ade- market place becomes more ‘noisy’
follow a process of
and so is the poker business. Players quately to communicate their mes- they value the specialist help a poker “TCS poker tables are used exten-
globalisation, the role of
want, and need, to know what is going sages to their public. However, in the media consultant can bring to their sively around the world. Whether
the media is perhaps
on out there, and just as game selec- last year larger companies have business. I can’t say for sure. Likely it your preference is for traditional or
tion is crucial in poker, media selec- started to use the expertise of special- is a mixture of both. theme styling, our tables are the
more important now
tion is crucial for poker business. ist poker media consultants to focus I believe the poker media consult- perfect choice for any card room
than it has ever been
Each poker business will have a on either geographical areas they may ing industry will continue to grow, and or exclusive high-limit/VIP gaming
before, according to
variety of ‘publics’ it needs to com- not be familiar with or to assist already not just in conjunction with the overall area. With unrivalled experience of
Brendan Murray.
municate with and often they find overburdened internal resources. growth in poker. As with all busi- fusing technical innovations with
themselves at a loss on how to do this The key for any company considering nesses, over time they become more traditional gaming products TCS
cost effectively and professionally. the help of a consultant in this crowded sophisticated; their publics become John Huxley give distinct advan-
That’s where outsourcing their com- media space is that their expectations more sophisticated; and the tools that tages to its customers. As technol-
munications can prove a successful are aligned with the consultant’s ability link the two - social media, search ogy extends its reach into every
part of their marketing mix. to produce visible, trackable results. engine optimisation, TV technology, corner of the gaming floor, opera-
Consulting in this sector is cur- Many companies use mainstream PR mobile technology, and so on - tors are looking for higher stan-
rently small but growing. Pure-play firms with little or no experience in become more sophisticated. dards of integration on their
poker media consulting is currently poker media and this will offer little or no The definitions of what companies tables. The flexibility to embed
worth around E150,000 per year, return at a significant cost. are and what tools we use to commu- all manner of advanced elec-
while full-service PR companies They also need to be very aware of nicate changes rapidly these days. tronic equipment and devices in
generate anything up to E500,000. their publics and the messages they Many poker businesses are now de gaming tables has fast become
Obviously, economies of scale are want to communicate. This will mean facto media businesses with maga- a primary product selection cri-
to be found in the larger English they can give a clear brief to the con- zines, blogs, news sections, twitter teria - only TCS John Huxley can
speaking markets so that is by far sultant who, if they are worth their accounts, branded TV shows and make this a reality.”
and away the largest market. salt, will know exactly how to strategi- Facebook pages. They need to Tracy Cohen,
Of course, if the legal landscape in cally approach the market to ensure ensure their media is not just pro- TCS John Huxley
the US begins to change, there will the success of the campaign. duced in a credible, professional
be an influx of European companies While I can’t speak for all consult- manner but that it is communicating “Tournaments online offer our
into the market who will need spe- ants, there have been signs of an the right message to the right people. customer segment a lot of poker
marketingmessages cialised knowledge of the media increase in business over recent for the money. Everyone can enjoy
POKER MEDIA CONSULTING landscape there. months. Whether that is because the Brendan Murray is direc- different tournament structures
As poker rooms expand beyond recession has meant poker busi- tor of Poker Media Con- from fast turbo tournaments to
With the exception of a couple of mag- their geographical borders with pan- nesses are looking more closely at sulting, which lists among larger big stack tournaments.”
azines, poker media barely existed a European poker tours and multi- their marketing and PR spend and are its clients Ladbrokes, Tomas Nilsson,
decade ago. Over the last few years it lingual online rooms, looking for ways to get more bang for Poker Pro magazine, business manager for
has grown rapidly and the number of communications will continue to their buck. Or it may be because, gen- 888.com and Paddy poker, games and
magazines, websites, television take on a pan-national approach. erally, companies recognise they are Power Poker. dice, PAF
34 September 2009 • pokerreport
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