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http://uk.pokernews.com/


UK Online Poker Market to Decline?

According to top marketing group Mintel, online poker in the United Kingdom is about to go into decline. A recently published report has suggested that the UK market will decline by 7% this year, with gross gaming yield dropping from £265 million (In 2008) to £247 million this year. The market grew 74% between 2004 and 2007, but as a direct result of the recession player habits have changed and the average spend is down from £345 to £281. Other factors which have been sited are rakeback promotions, which have significantly minimised profit margins.

Matt King, of Mintel, commented, "Poker revenues have clearly peaked. The recession is the most obvious culprit, with around a third of poker players now playing less often or for lower stakes because of the economic downturn. However, there may be other inherent problems that the industry has to address. Rakeback promotions, for one thing, are minimising margins and this shows the emphasis is on customer numbers, not the profit generated per customer. Lack of time is another factor impacting on play, possibly suggesting work pressures in the current recession are having a toll on players' free time."

Other facts that have come out of the research include around half players play more than once a week, one third of players play more than one table at a time and live poker has noticeably suffered too.

Who recognises trends in their own play in the above?

p.s Barry you can promote your book on here in exchange for me taking some content!

Are you sure thats the right link Tighty? Thats not from Pokernews

And sweet, cheers  :)up

Sorry I didnt mean the actual link (thanks again btw) - we never published that story

Oh. It was from Nov 2009 and I just spotted it trawling back for something, thought it was interesting. and not a diary.

Fair enough

Looks like we survived the decline anyway

Rakeback grinders making games worse
PTR/Sharkscope mean fish lose money quicker and don't enjoy their experience
Saturated market
People too busy reading all the diaries on here
Recession

All these things to blame IMO.

I am playing lower then I did before but playing a lot more
And better brm

love the new avatar paul you clown!

I think things have, and always will continue to change - and some will always benefit and others suffer but normally the people who adjust and adapt to the changing scenario's better will remain un-harmed.

It's not supposed to be easy imo - although it should be :)

fwiw though i think local amateur tourneys have been hit pretty hard, which is down to economics imo and that will have a long term affect on everyone i think

we are in a recession, first things to go are luxuries such as poker.

The facts don't support that, though. The Report seems ro be a bit out of date, but all the latest evidence points to a clear & significant downturn in Online Poker, with the Networks almost all showing a steepening southbound graph.

However, Online Gaming - excluding poker - is going the other way, very much so, & the Online Gaming Market's growth in the last 18 months has been eye-watering.

MORE money is being spent in Online gaming - much more. Less of it is being spent in Online Poker.

The Online poker area which has held up best is the small stakes stuff, where growth continues. Mid & high stakes are suffering though.

Think its a combination of advertising being allowed on TV (especially the half time 'rooney to score in 2nd half 3-1' type of adverts) and also new demographics appearing, particularly housewives. I think there are more adverts for bingo then there are poker (That said, my mum plays poker now which is quite lol)

The small stakes market is where its at now, poker wise, hence stuff like PokerStars Home Games garnering a lot of interest.

What are you basing all this on Tikay? And are you talking specifically about the UK here? Internationally dot coms are suffering. Although a factor in most networks' fall in numbers is the removal the Italian and French consumers. Is the small stakes comment based on anecdootal/observed evidence or from speaking to poker sites about it?

I'm just curious.

Another factor in the growth is "Mobile", a very surprising collateral effect of "smartphones" is (are?)  "apps" which enable betting to be done anytime, anywhere. That has changed the industry completely. That is where the phenom growth originates. It used to be a trip to the High Street bookie (they are in serious decline now, of course), now, just press a button on the smarty, anywhere antyime anyplace, job done. If you think about it, it's so logical.

Online Bingo is also HUGE now, & off the graph. Makes sense really. The B & M Bingo Rooms must be hurting dreadfully.

Small stakes poker - yes yes yes. That segment has been hitherto ignored by the Industry, despite contributing up to 80% of the revenues. Not any more, they are the target for almost every Room now, & are at last being roperly catered for. Quite right too.

I think it's taken the Industry almost a decade to wake up to the fact that these small stakes players - the base of the pyramid, the submerged part of the iceberg - don't know what "rakeback" is, & ain't interested. The penny has dropped, at last.

Trade press & online industry sites. You will understand that because of my job, we study that sort of stuff miscoscopically. Fortunately, we are very much bucking the trend, though to a degree, that is because we are only 4 years old, & our growth pattern has yet to plateau. It's also because we Market well. ;)

No, not UK, worldwide. 'Stars & Tilt are in y-o-y double-digit decline, i-poker is way, way down, so the market must be heading south.

The French & Italian scenarios - many many more Countries will follow suit within 5 years - muddies the water, though.

The shape of the industry will change considerably in the next 5 years. The networks will feel the most pain, for sure.

grinders gonna grind

The bingo stuff really took off following the smoking ban, bingo halls had probably as big a smoking culture as anyone and it hit them really hard.

Stars and Party didn't even have proper 'high stakes' tables for a long time. I don't think small stakes players have been ignored. Possibly not respected and underappreciated, but not ignored. Heck online sites such as Tribeca practically invented the concept with things like $0.01/$0.02 tables.

Everyone loves online bingo because it's growth has been phenomenal and everyone loves a growth story - especially public companies. But it's not off the scale. And it's demographics aren't as sexy as any other vertical.

Well don't believe the trade press for a start!! Most of them have no idea what they are on about!! ;)

But seriously don't discount the Italian and French effect. French customers were a huge part of the ipoker network and they've been stripped out entirely from its dot com site - the one you see on pokerscout. Same with ongame who were massive in France, ditto party stars etc etc. Look at the size of the standalone French and Italian networks. So yes it most definitely muddies the waters.

100% agree that things will change considerably in the next 5 years. But they have changed beyond anyone's predictions in the last 5 years too.

There are definitely too many networks. This can't be sustainable long term as the market fragments more. There has to be more M&A. Or simply firms going out of business.

not subtle enough huh!!! lol no hard feelings lol.