Great Future For The Poker Game
Published: Friday, February 24, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
GREAT FUTURE FOR THE POKER GAME
New survey results say Europe is the future for the poker game
Irish research outfit Research and Markets has launched their study
of poker - online and off - with some interesting facts and predictions.
Online Poker - Driving Gambling to New Heights is a detailed industry report
that includes the results of a survey conducted among industry experts and covers
many well known online poker sites.
The company says that gambling reinvents itself constantly, and online poker is
the product that seems to be the current guarantor of future growth as the perfect
symbiosis of two mega trends in gambling: online gambling and poker.
"What began as triumphant advance in the US is now leading to a global poker
wave on the Internet with tremendous potential," say the authors, giving
the following examples to substantiate their claims:
* The amount gambled on poker websites around the world is estimated to be more
than US $ 60 billion for 2005.
* Over 60 percent of industry experts surveyed believe that online poker will
be the dominant offer in online gambling in 2-3 years.
* 75 percent of the industry experts surveyed believe that the global annual rake/commission
in the next 2-3 years will be greater than US $ 4 billion.
An important reason for the rapid growth of online poker is the increasing number
of successful TV shows featuring poker. There are many examples of successful
poker TV coverage, among them the World Series of Poker on ESPN, Celebrity Poker
on Bravo, and the European Poker Tour on Eurosport.
Online poker has also gone up in the estimation of the global business and financial
community, with growing numbers of successful gambling groups adding online poker
to their product offerings.
On the downside for new entrants, the online poker market will become a tougher
in the future. With decreasing revenues per active player and growing competition,
poker operators have to find successful strategies for the future.
Industry insiders surveyed confirmed the importance of large networks, and predicted
that consolidation would be the consequence of more big betting groups expanding
their poker interests or entering the sector.
When it comes to geographical expansion, Europe seems to be the place to go; 52
percent of the experts believe that Europe offers the greatest future potential
for online poker.
