Tribeca Tables’ Steve Cook explains the association between online gambling and well known commercial brands has led to a traditional parlour game such as Poker being the driving force behind the P2P evolution of Internet gaming.

The apparent popularity of online poker has climbed over 530% in just the 12 months.  Industry experts have studied the amount gambled in poker rooms around the World increased from £6m a day last January to £38m in December - far beyond everyone’s expectation.  This year the industry is expected to equal that of last year’s as people continue to catch poker fever.  With the UK gripped by poker mania, the rest of Europe is set to follow!

It’s the accessibility that has spurred the growth with the wide spread take up of ADSL, creative game content and efficient transaction methods.  But it is also the public’s genuine desire to play Poker that is the simple genius behind the poker revolution!

Now worth an estimated $640m dollars, the market is attracting non-gaming attention by its ability to generate revenue and its skill based P2P design.  But as a critical mass of players is required to run a successful game, many firms, regardless of their web traffic volumes, have decided to join large poker networks, either promoting their own brand or a reputable poker site. 

Online poker rooms are quite different from a traditional suite of online house casino games.  Firstly it’s pier to pier; it needs more than one player to start a game!  In fact its needs a whole lot of players if a poker room is to run 24/7!  Therefore it’s a small operating space, there are about 15-20 poker room aggregators presently in the market.

For a brand, whether in gaming or non gaming, it can be a huge revenue earner!  Particularly if brands have a high demographic rating; that is to say a web business that generates high traffic volume or in procession of a large subscriber database; are able to augment and monetise their web business with a poker room.  For instance, gaming centric companies from gambling to betting sites.  The recent explosion of sport betting exchanges similar to the way poker is structured has also a higher degree of potential poker players. 

75% of poker players are predominantly male.  Although having said that; women players are known to remain more loyal customers and enjoy the sense of community offered by a poker room and their chat rooms.

Consequently we are now seeing a large number of European non gaming companies that are seizing new revenue opportunities.  Both private and large corporate names and household brands are all getting their feet wet!  Such as Multi-media and interactive TV providers, newspaper groups and fashion brands are analysing their user data and finding a percentage of poker players they never thought existed.  By offering this new customer activity, it is also generating substantial revenues at the same time.

Non gaming brands are choosing to run with poker products over casino products because poker is seen as a “skill game” and the house bears no financial risks.  Additionally players lose to each other rather than to the house, shielding the brand from the negative sentiment of loosing players.  Furthermore the retention costs in marketing poker are at least 60% less than running an online casino.

Significantly it’s the liquidity of players that is partly the secret to the success story!  It is generating enough customers on a daily basis is where the software providers have devised winning retention formulas.  Crucially aggregating all their clients’ tables and players into one card room creates critical mass.  This formula attracts even more players and so it goes on! 

For some brands, the ‘piece de resistance’ is that with some poker providers, each brand can retain its own commercial identity to its customers, even though their customers could be sitting at a table with other players from another part of the World.  Brand loyalty is achieved by their customers feeling comfortable playing in a well known brand’s poker room, even down to it’s logo on a table!

If for example you visit ReadaBet’s poker room at readabetpoker, you can register and play for money or fun.  It will give you a very good idea why poker has become so popular. 

Providing you can drive web traffic, the potential earnings from your own branded poker room could range from around half a million to a million dollars in just the first year alone!  With no money at risk and virtually no risk to the brand’s integrity, skinned poker will continue to propel the online poker market into a multi-billion dollar industry by 2005.

The huge success of aggregating players into one card room, efficient marketing, high tech anti fraud controls, loyal brand retention schemes, customer support and creating a poker community spirit are the answers for producing a highly lucrative business venture. 

Back to Texas Holdem Online Poker

Texas-holdem-online-poker.com