Poker
Poker News

 If you have a gaming company with operations in Denmark, chances are you are probably doing quite well on the financial side of things.

That is, unless your operations deal solely or mainly in the game of poker.
Figures released by the Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) have shown that gross gaming online poker revenues in the Scandinavian country have fallen in the second quarter of this year. Danish poker revenues in Q2 totalled around $8.9 million, a drop from the $9.8 million in poker revenues during the same time in 2012.
That does not seem like a huge decline at first glance – it is a little over 9 percent – but it is a major fall when put into the context of full year projections for gross poker revenue in Denmark.
The DGA has put forward its expectations that poker revenue for this year will total around $36.3 million. If that figure proves to be correct, it would be a drop of over two and a half million dollars from 2012 revenue totals.
The projected decline is even more significant given that other forms of online gaming in Denmark have increased over the same period. Gross online casino revenues in the country, for example, increased from around $41.5 million to $44.3 million in the second quarter of this year.
Online sports revenues, on the other hand, jumped from $46.9 million to $59.2 million in Q2, an increase of 26 percent year-on-year. Those figures helped contribute to a 17 percent increase in total online gaming revenues in Denmark in the last quarter, an obviously positive event for that country’s online gaming industry.
Still though, it does make one question why poker revenues have gone the other way while the country’s online gaming industry seems to be growing in strength. One possible reason could lie in the existence of an online gaming blacklist in the country, which contains a number of sites and operators.
The list is not exhaustive, however, especially when compared to those of other European countries such as Italy, Bulgaria, Belgium and Greece, and many online poker sites operate in the country.
Another possible - and more likely - reason for the declining poker fortunes in Denmark is that the country has been caught up in what seems to be a trend away from the game. Denmark is certainly not the only country to have had declining gross poker revenue in recent months; a number of other countries, including France and Italy, have also experienced falls in online poker revenue while other forms of online gaming have increased.
Such trends do not necessarily mean that the game of poker is in danger in countries such as Denmark. Poker has been extremely popular in many countries around the world for a number of years, having achieved mainstream success and having attracted huge numbers of followers along with it.
Now, for whatever reason, it appears that some of those casual followers are either steering away from poker or paying less attention to it. That is the case with most things that suddenly gain major amounts of attention; it becomes fashionable for some followers who stop playing the game almost as quickly as they’ve adopted it.
It is likely not a case of poker entering bad times, more that times are still good, but no longer fantastic, for poker in Denmark and beyond.

 Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst went all-in and tied the knot with Miranda Forster in a wedding ceremony held in New York.

Poker's all-time female tournament money winner received a ton of congratulatory well-wishes on her marriage via Twitter. She thanked all those who sent the happy couple their warmest regards and praised her betrothed, tweeting "Miranda's my proof of running good at life."
That good run on the felt includes winning the $25,000 PCA High Roller in January for more than $1.4 million and a 4th place finish at the $25,000 High Roller EPT Grand Final in May for more than $380,000. Selbst is now in Barcelona to compete in that leg of the EPT. PokerUpdate would also like to extend our congrats to the newly-married couple.

 Many different companies have released there financial reports for July of this year or for the first half of 2013 recently and the news overall has caused some industry insiders to worry about the health of the online market, especially in Europe.  There were some good results mixed in though, and that alleviated some concerns, but overall the reports were not encouraging, and as a result many people are worried that poker in Europe might be in some trouble.

Bwin.Party, one of the biggest online sites, reported losses across the board year-over-year measuring the past six months ending in June according to igamingbusiness.com.  earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was down by nearly 33% from last year this time, while revenues were down 16%, sales were down in every division including poker falling over 30 million pounds to 62.3 million.  Sports betting and bingo were no better though as they saw major declines as well, but not near as severe as those saw in the poker section of their offering.
Bwin.Party did offer some optimism saying that they are focusing on markets that could be significantly more profitable than the ones that they are currently in, and that they are implementing changes to the software that will allow for more efficiency and should help keep costs lower and allow revenues to increase. This probably includes getting the WSOP.com real money site off the ground in the US, which was slated to open in Summer of 2013, but still hasn’t started offering real money gaming.  It will be important to see if this comes to fruition however; as you wouldn’t expect them to say things are not going to turn around.
Fortuna Entertainment Group posted an impressive rise in profits though during the first half of 2013 with a nearly 34.5% increase in net profit.  They serve mostly Central and Eastern Europe as a retail sports book.  This large increase in the region is exceptionally encouraging as many industry insiders have pegged it as a major growth area, so seeing any decline in the region would be less than encouraging for Europe as a whole.
Greek gaming monopoly OPAP demonstrated that they are being hit hard by the financial problems that are currently gripping Greece by seeing a decline of 73.9% in net profit.  This massive nosedive seems to indicate rising costs associated with doing business, because revenues fell only 15.1%, which is microscopic compared to the total fall in net profits seen by the company.  This shouldn’t come as a huge shock considering the problems seen in the Greek economy as a whole and massive unemployment rates experienced by the citizens of the country, however, it’s still not encouraging news.
Another interesting tidbit is something that doesn’t have to do with financial reports about companies, but instead has more to do with factors that can provide insight into the mood of the public surrounding the games.  In the UK during July of 2013 search queries for gaming based terms was down 34% to fewer than 1 million total searches on Google alone.  These search terms included: sports betting, casino, poker and bingo.  Marketers like to point to these types of behaviors as an overall indicator of what people are looking for, and the overall health of different industries.  If they are correct in their thoughts, then this could be a major problem for the industry as people are not looking for sites to join or more information.
 This information taken as a whole provides an interesting picture of what gaming in Europe is looking like currently.  The rise in Central and Eastern Europe seems to be on track with what players and companies are assuming, but the sharp contraction of the UK market could be coming as a bit of a surprise and appears to have caught some companies off guard as they are trying to expand a little later than what would have been optimal.  Sites like Bwin.Party are also showing more problems as they have been unable to expand into the regulated US market or properly diversify themselves into other regions of the world.  It’s going to be something that everyone who plays poker should pay attention to, because knowing what sites are really attracting the new players will mean potentially getting the new fish before everyone else.

 Sixteen months after closing its Maltese-licensed Purple Lounge poker room, Mediacorp has finally made the decision to cease trading.

Former owners of the Purple Lounge poker room Mediacorp plc have finally announced that the company is stopping trading. Purple Lounge went offline in April last year and into liquidation shortly afterwards, leaving players with a total loss of their deposits.
Mediacorp plc is a publicly listed company on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Purple Lounge was a Malta-registered subsidiary which could be liquidated independently of the parent company—which meant players got nothing and had absolutely no recourse against Mediacorp.
The management quickly changed as shareholders ousted founders Justin and Jason Drummond. The two have a long record of managing failed AIM companies, while managing to be very highly paid in the process.
Purple Lounge was regulated by the Maltese Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) which did absolutely nothing to assist players and washed its hands of any responsibility for the company’s financial collapse, despite having regulatory requirements which mandated segregated player funds.
The new management quickly discovered yet more financial problems and set about trying to save what they could. Assets which shareholders had assumed to have value were soon discovered to be worth virtually nothing.

 William Hill extended its reach into the U.S. gambling market a bit further by announcing that it has partnered with a new casino on the Las Vegas Strip to provide sportsbook wagering.

SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, set for a grand opening in 2014, has teamed up with one of the UK's largest bookmaking operations and will unveil a new sportsbook concept unmatched by today's industry standards.
“Together we’ll create a sports wagering experience that’s best in class for the market and takes the traditional sports book model to a whole new level,” SLS casino president Rob Oseland told iGaming Business.
Some of the features punters can expect at the new sportsbook include a video wall showing loads of high-definition sporting events and in-play betting that's fully automated. In addition, bettors on the go can count on an advanced mobile wagering platform.
Next year, William Hill will celebrate 80 years in the bookmaking business. It wasn't until last year that the company made its way onto American soil by purchasing a chain of sportsbooks. William Hill currently enjoys about 11% of Nevada sports betting revenue, a number likely to increase following the opening of the state-of-the-art sportsbook at SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino
 

 Next month's federal election in Australia to select 44th Parliament membership has online poker players down under concerned that a Liberal Party victory could result in a Black Friday-like fiasco that may put the kibosh on Internet poker play.

Should the Labor Party under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd prevail, online poker players in Australia would be able to breathe a sigh of relief and the legality of Internet poker would likely remain in its current grey area. However, a win by Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party could result in an online gambling crackdown similar to what happened in the U.S. over two years ago when the government seized the domains of the major poker sites.
Abbott has promised a ban, calling online poker and gambling "a dark cave into which people can so easily retreat and there they are beyond help.” This Adelson-like thinking has a number of Aussies on edge, including 2005 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem, who sent off a series of strongly-worded tweets that showed his obvious displeasure with the Liberal Party's stance.
Hachem denounced Abbott's views on online poker and gambling, tweeting, "I HATE ignorance in any form but esp. when coming from people in political power."
As pointed out by pokerasiapacific.com, online poker in Australia is without the benefit of lobbying organizations, political activism, or any funding that can fight attempts to shut it down. A ban on online gambling would allow the Liberal Party to appease the anti-gambling crowd who cite the need to wipe out the quite large numbers of problem gamblers in Australia.
But online poker is certainly not the reason for the dirge of compulsive gambling behavior among Australians. The culprit is the country's beloved "pokies," said to be the nemesis of four of every five gambling addicts throughout the country. That is the ignorance Hachem is referring to when he asks, "How can the liberals glaze over the fact that slot/poker machines contribute to 80% of gambling probs" in Australia?
Surveys show that online poker is not the problem. But it has not stopped the Liberal Party from creating a "Policy to Help Problem Gamblers" that aims to "investigate methods of strengthening the enforcement of the IGA [Interactive Gaming Act] and ensuring Australians are protected from online gambling operators.”
So the liberals aim to protect Australians who play poker and gamble online even though that is not where protection is needed. Recent poll results show the Liberal Party to hold a good-sized lead. Aussie online poker players may want to expedite cashout requests from their favorite online poker sites in advance of the September election.
 

 The beta test site for PartyPoker’s long anticipated new software was leaked over the weekend. The test site currently carries a notice: “Our beta version is currently offline while we are fixing bugs.”

However, a rolling slideshow shows a few glimpses of what the new software will look like and what it will do. First is the strong emphasis on making the most of poker’s social aspects.
Then a new feature simply titled “Achievements and Missions”.
A much simplified lobby interface appears to provide recreational players with single-click access to a seat at the tables.
And finally a glimpse of the new table colors and graphics themselves.
Beta versions are put out to discover any remaining glitches in the software that intensive practical use brings to light, but the announced launch window of August is rapidly closing—the summer bugs are being persistent this year.

 Delaware officially launched play-money poker today, which puts the state one step closer to real-money games.

All three of the Delaware casinos have banded together to introduce a free-to-play gambling app on Facebook. Branded as Double Down Casino the app offers poker, video slots, blackjack and roulette.
The poker part of the site launched with No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha and Five-Card Draw.
The play money games were introduced to help lay the framework for real-money online games, which are slated to debut at the end of October.
888 Holdings and Delaware slots system manager Scientific Games are set to provide software for the real-money games.
One of three states that voted to legalize online poker, Delaware is in a league of its own compared to established gambling powerhouses Nevada and New Jersey.
Las Vegas already offers real-money games thanks to Ultimate Poker while New Jersey is still waiting for its first online for-money poker site.

 Build Your Bonus has turned out to be a highly successful marketing strategy for Full Tilt Poker, while the loss of Red Star Poker has caused Revolution Gaming to look for ways to build their network back up.

Those are the highlights of recent online poker player traffic numbers as compiled by industry independent tracking site PokerScout. Full Tilt showed an increase of 14% of players last week by offering the Build Your Bonus promotion that allows 37% rakeback built on top of the site's VIP program.
FTP now holds a commanding lead of second place behind sister site PokerStars, averaging 2,700 players in a seven-day span. Third place iPoker Network lost some ground, currently enjoying 2,300 cash game players in the same time period.
Meanwhile, the Revolution Gaming Network saw its cash action tumble 17% as a result of Red Star's defection. MPN welcomed Red Star with open arms and now looks to improve on its tenth place worldwide standing. At 1,180 players in a seven-day average, the former Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) is nearing the ninth place French market offering, Winamax.
Another noteworthy promo is the Winning Poker Network's The Beast. Due to expire at the end of this week for August, the kicked in cash of the promotion's one-year anniversary saw more players participate earlier this month. But interest has been waning of late.
Overall, the industry barely moved last week with only 0.2% growth. But the numbers in comparison to last year at this time show a decline of 12%, a rather troubling statistic.
Things to watch for in next week's report include whether or not the new software rollout at Ultimate Poker prompted more Nevada residents and tourists to log on and play at the nation's only regulated poker site. Also, we shall continue to keep an eye on MPN, as the influx of players from Red Star may propel the network even further forward.

 Delaware aims to team up with Nevada early next year in an interstate partnership agreement to increase online poker liquidity.

That announcement came on the heels of other news, both good and bad, related to Delaware's Internet gambling launch. The bad news is that the projected date of going live with real-money online gambling sites has been pushed back to October. The good news is that play-money sites have already been launched.
The play-money roll out allows players throughout the world who visit the websites of Dover Downs, Harrington Raceway and Casino, and Delaware Park to gamble online at DoubleDown Casino via Facebook. Once the real-money virtual switch is turned on in October, only players residing in Delaware will be permitted to enjoy roulette, slots, poker, blackjack and the like for cold, hard cash.
The delay in real-money Internet gambling comes as no surprise, as Delaware gaming officials had aggressively selected September as the month in which all systems would be go. Seeing the unforeseen delays in additional website launches in Nevada's online poker scheme, many were anticipating that Delaware would also fall victim to a similar fate.
New Jersey's projected date of late November for its Internet gambling regime may also be a bit on the premature side. That launch may wind up being nearer to Christmas than Thanksgiving.
Tom Cook, Delaware Secretary of Finance, told delawareonline.com that The First State and the Silver State may be combining Internet poker player pools in the first quarter of 2014. Both states are envisioning partnerships with other states that eventually climb aboard the state-by-state online gambling format legally permitted in the U.S.
Also next year, players in Delaware who prefer online gambling via mobile devices will be in luck. Cook believes that mobile online gaming will also be in place sometime in 2014.
pages: << 1 ... 52 53 54 55 56 ... 80 >>
  • 1669

  • 1816
  • 1537

  • 1543

  • 1549

  • 1546

  • Getting Started Poker in 4 steps

    Step 1 Step 2
    Step 3 Step 4