You forgot the link

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/10/22/sorry-mr-online-poker-nobody-cares-about-you.aspx

I dont post links as I have been told you need permission and I couldn't paste the entire article...that being said I think its the best article I have read on the industry and is in line with all the work we are doing in the US. I believe that a new player will emerge in the on line space probably from a bricks and mortar casino such as LVS, Wynn or Genting who will likely purchase an existing operator such as Bwin and use the combined player bases to introduce new technology such as WebTV and this will provide the next generation in social networking.

[A self-defeating game: The skill gap problem]

Just a few thoughts

So basically this is what the online poker industry looks like: We have one player -- PokerStars -- which, following the Full Tilt acquisition, will have in the neighbourhood of 50% to 70% market share of the dot-com online poker market. PokerStars benefits greatly from strong network effects where online players will continually gravitate to one large site with the greatest volume and the greatest variety of games and offerings, in much the same way that eBay benefits from network effects where buyers and sellers ultimately gravitate to one site.

And then we have everybody else at less than 6% market share each.

We have an industry plagued by rising player acquisition costs and marketing costs as a percentage of revenues. Things like sign-up bonuses, rakeback programs, and affiliate programs used to acquire new players and drive traffic to a given site are expensive marketing tools that I am pretty sure have slim to negative value, particularly since a player has effectively no switching costs to move from site to site once a promotion has been exhausted. This is similar to slot free-play and table games match-play offers often used by bricks-and-mortar casinos, which are promotional offers that generally have negative value with little to no long-term benefit to the casino.

We also have countries like Spain, Italy, and France that have left the dot-com space and installed new regulations where players in each of those countries can only play poker online with players located in the same country (i.e., a player in Spain can only play with another player in Spain, and not against a player in France or Germany) on their respective .es, .it, and .fr sites. These regulations served to remove liquidity from these markets, made the markets less attractive, and effectively chased IGT from Europe.
And then, for online poker room operators other than PokerStars, poker revenue typically accounts for only a fraction of total online gaming revenues for each of these companies.

A self-defeating game: The skill gap problem

There's another aspect of online poker that is often overlooked in these types of discussions, and that is an increasing skill gap problem.
Bwin.party's investor presentation contains a slide entitled "Dotcom poker in structural decline," which includes a chart showing that the average hourly number of players in the dot-com space has fallen from over 80,000 players per hour in January 2011 to around 50,000 players per hour in July 2012, which bwin.party attributes to five things:
1.       Poker maturing in European markets
2.       Regulation fracturing dot-com liquidity (referring to the switch in countries like Italy and France from .com to .it and .fr)
3.       Tax leakage
4.       Full Tilt removing $180 million from the market
5.       More sharks = fish eaten quicker
Bwin.party then goes on to list six steps to "optimize the poker ecology," which include:
1.       Rebalance player pool in favor of more casual players.
2.       Focus on driving and retaining net depositing players.
3.       Removal of highest stakes tables.
4.       Protecting recreational players from "fish hunting."
5.       Rebalance bonus packages in favor of recreational players.
6.       Introduce new features to lobby and interface to benefit casual player.
Get it?

There are too many professionals in the online space, and not enough fish. Thus, the game has gotten too tough to be interesting for the casual player, resulting in less overall activity.
Walk into any locals poker room in the country, and you are bound to find seven or eight regulars at the table. Back in 2006, when the average skill level of such regulars wasn't that high, this would be no problem for any reasonably skilled player. But in 2012, everybody is better, and the average skill level of the regulars has risen considerably, to the point that I think the average professional-level player in 2006 would be a fish in these games without having made similar advancements in his/her own game.

Consequently, the games today have become uninteresting to many former professionals -- even to those good enough to still beat these games -- because no matter how good you are, win rates will decline because the regulars aren't as bad as they used to be, and the fish are in shorter supply.
Meanwhile, the casual player today has no chance.

There is an underlying irony here, and it is that the professionals and other regulars in online poker space are generally the most valuable players on any given site. This is because these players put in the longest hours, and often play four, eight, or even 16 or more tables at a time.
The more players you have playing multiple tables, the more tables run. And the more tables that run, the more hands that get dealt. And the more hands that get dealt, the more revenue that is generated as rake.
But in a sense, poker is a self-defeating game where the most valuable players are also the ones killing it. And if you're a poker player looking for a return to the PartyPoker of 2006, you're not going to get it.

However with the emergence of WebTV and the evolution of Mind Sports the future may hold more surprises than forecast. The continued growth in on line gaming will evolve through new broadcast technology and different real life experiences in 2013. The conventional wisdom on who will lead and what on line will look like will in my opinion be very different from what is being portrayed by the industry at this time.

Sorry about messing up the quoting, the marketing team don't let me post very much nowadays for this very reason   I hope to see you in Prague

Why, what's happening.

LOL Thinking about it probably nothing you would be interested in, but if you do show up I would be happy to give you a guided tour.

seriously, no idea what's going on in Prague......

Hi

Europe's largest poker festival runs from the 26th November to the 16th December at the Corinthia hotel in Prague. There is a WPT, GSOP, World sit and go championship, 888 bounty tournament and of course the EPT (Which is in the Hilton) there are 30 +other events ranging from 100 euros to a 10K High roller event and ots of great cash games to suit all players. It is the most supported on line event in Europe with more than 40 sites running qualifiers.

Last year more than 2000 players from more than 25 countries played and this year we are expecting even more. There is also the first mind sports festival with a 10k Scrabble tournament, Bridge, Backgammon, Risk and a 30k League of Legends event. The rooms are only 99 Euros and include breakfast. I wont put up the Prague Poker Festival link without permission but I am sure you can find it.

We have Rachel Riley from Countdown presenting the Mind Sports and expect many events to be live streamed on the the WebTv channel.

There will be at least three events in 2013 that are similar to this. The next one is Vienna in February then Marbella in April. We are hoping that DTD will be joining us at these events and maybe even have a Blonde Bash.

We are trying to provide an event that appeals to all players and attracts new ones and hope that all who come along have a great time...Even Andrew

Cheers

Dave

Why, what's happening.

LOL Thinking about it probably nothing you would be interested in, but if you do show up I would be happy to give you a guided tour.

There have always been 'many companies working on new initiatives and trying to attract new players and sponsors into the game' - they generally fail.

Come back to us when someone has arranged the Tesco Big Poker Tournament - till then it's just hot air.

Come to Prague and see for yourself

For poker to evolve and to attract a consistent audience worldwide then the way broadcasting works must change. Sponsors (who will be vital in ensuring a financial future) will need to see much better value from their investment and the public must receive a more entertaining experience. This will not come from within the industry (Pokerstars may be the exception but even this is unlikely). As I am sure everyone is aware the investment in players, tours, broadcasting and in poker in general has been massively reduced and even if the US switches on there will not be a large cash injection in poker anytime soon. The money from Full Tilt will give a short term boost but is unlikely to change the general direction that the industry is presently going.
The balance between skilfully played hands, table chatter and crazy antics is difficult to capture and though I agree that the game has been dumbed down to much the antics of Hevad Khan went way too far.
There are many people in the industry that produce entertaining shows, though many of these are targeted at a core audience that is steadily shrinking and comprises more of the devout than the recreational player.
However there are many companies working on new initiatives and trying to attract new players and sponsors into the game. This is a massive industry that has been badly managed and portrayed, the constant flow of negative press over the last five years and the poorly managed PR by many of the main operators has put off many organisations from considering associating their brands with the game. In the last year however attitudes have started to change and some of these organisations are now in discussions with several different parties with a view to supporting certain events and broadcasts. The quality of on line viewing and the reduction in costs of producing a show has encouraged investment and will result in several groups trying to produce new content via WebTV. This in turn will reach a wider audience and encourage new players and followers. TV shows are not likely to grow as the rate of change to viewing via your Ipad or PC has meant that everyone has had to adapt quicker than originally forecast. This has opened up the opportunity for more liberal shows were player’s comments and style will not be censored in the same way as if it were showed through TV.
I believe that there is a great future in the industry and hope that the coming year sees poker grow again. I am confident that new characters will emerge and that this helps encourage a new wave of players that play both recreationally and professionally.

Hi

I understand your concern but we do not publish any of our client data as we believe the research helps shape our future investment and we want to try and stay ahead of the competition. We will be launching two new services as a result of the research and will be investing over 100k Euros into Prague this year so we listen to what the players say and try and act on it. In the U/K we have limited exposure mostly because DTD has the market sewn up and we already work with Genting on that tour. We would always welcome any player input and anyone who wants to contact us and assist in improving any tour experience is welcome. In this economic environment all input is gratefully accepted

Dave

Dave 1961 can you quantify this substantial feedback from players in favour? Have you got results from a poll that you can publish for eg?

In our particular poll a lot of players are voting in favour of no re-entry. Slightly more are voting for re-entry but I don't see this as substantial feedback in favour of such a change. In fact our forum poll prob expresses the views of the better players along with venue supporters. So I would be genuinely interested in the results if you were to poll every runner in your upcoming festival. I think an average player votes against re-entry into big tournaments. If that isn't the case there are a lot of average players with big bankrolls out there imo. Think the re-entry format is the desire of venues and the small % of better players rather than 95% of average players, the value players. Anyway a few questions for this debate...

a) If most players love the prizepool being boosted by re-entry why limit re-entry?

b) Ref the expenses. Travelling to one multi-day comp is -Ev compared to loading up 6 comps at home. Does the concept of re-entry now make it a +Ev coup for the average player? In fact better players being able to re-enter makes the situation even worse doesn't it?

c) If we stake a horse into a big comp and he goes on to take it down under his own steam on a personal second bullet do we feel fine about it? Think I would feel sore seeing him fistpump the trophy and the big comedy cheque, but in actual fact his second bullet has nothing to do with me or the original stake right?

d) Is cash poker a completely different game? Think eg rugby union and hungy hippos are completely different games.

Hi

We run tours across Europe and the US. Our staff poll players on the ground to gauge their reaction to various events, structures and buy-ins. The players come from over twenty countries and we feel that this gives a more balanced viewpoint based on the nationality of most events.

During the WSOP the Prague poker festival will be announced for Nov/Dec. There will be 3 day ones and it is a 3300 Euro Re-entry event. The reason we have chosen this is that we have had substantial feedback from players that the benefits far outweigh the cons. I know that this is always going to be a contentious subject but given the boost to the prize pool and players travel costs I believe it will be part of the poker circuit for quite some time.
 What I believe is a more interesting question are bounty tournaments, we are considering running a 1500 Euro bounty as these are becoming much more popular events

[Table of British Bracelets, Finals, Cashes:]

So far

Table of British Bracelets, Finals, Cashes:

#2  JP Kelly: Final   
       Sadan Turker, Paul Foltyn: cash
#3  David Nicholson, Ben Vinson, Sebastian Saffari: cash
#4  Zimnan Ziyard: cash
#5 Toby Lewis, Johm Eames, Jack Ellwood: cash

What about Scott O reilly I believe he is still in the PLH 1500?

Hi

I see many prices quoted on this thread don't mention the 12% tax that is on top and the resort fees. Or the fact that internet is charged at a crazy rate at some properties. No matter who you choose please ensure you have the full information before booking.

Hi Guys

We will be releasing the Palazzo packages this week and have several villas this year as well. Our US office is now up and running so we will have staff on the ground for the whole series as per last year. Our rates will be for any day so we know sometimes you can get cheaper days via lastminute etc but we INCLUDE tax, resort fee and internet in our costs and all management of registrations with a guarantee of money back on buy ins that are no shows. We are also offering Bust out Check out on this hotel so if you leave early you get your money back. We are fully licensed and register more players then any group outside the USA.

Please contact Pauline on 01752 231810 if you require any info

Cheers

Daave

Hi

I hope to see some of you in Prague next week, with a WPT ,EPT and GSOP as well as 17 other events it looks like it will be a big turnout. There are plenty of cash games and smaller events and with the casino in the hotel and the rooms at only 99 Euros inc Breakfast its great value...we are planning more of these next year as well so your feedback is always welcome.

Cheers

Dave

I hope its OK to post these links but I am impressed by the quality

http://int.pokerfed.org/live/

Are you linked to the company in any way?

Not at all, I am suprised that someone is spending $10 million on this venture and nobody in poker is talking about it in any real detail. It just does not add up to me. It has been reported in the US on Forbes and is backed by Dentsu the large Japanese agency so I was expecting more of a PR splash