Steve Cook, European Managing Director from poker software developers Tribeca Tables, gives his expert views on what we can expect in 2006 for poker vendors and operators.
Recent headlines in the media such as “Poker is the new gambling sensation” and “Over a million dollars are staked on poker sites every minute” are typical of the hype surrounding the poker industry. A hype that will burst? Well, no not really! Although some industry experts may have differing views, most agree that the poker business is still set to continue growing at a steady pace.
Steve Cook - European MD of Tribeca
TablesHowever if 2005 was anything to go by, then
2006 will be an even more turbulent year for operators. We have already
seen mass movement in the poker space, from mega floatations such
as Party Gaming on the London stock market to mergers, take-overs
and buy-outs. This year we should expect to see more of the same as
the poker industry consolidates its position with a number of IPOs
and further M&As being planned. Poker network giant Ongame recently
announced a buy-out by Austrian based betting site BetandWin for $500m.
Poker operators are now attracting interest from the larger multi-media
companies and the major consumer brands as a way to buy into the space.
One thing would appear to be certain; it is proving increasingly difficult for new companies to enter the market particularly from a start up position. Without leveraging the liquidity from an existing network provider it will be a huge challenge unless brands are prepared to throw a load of money at building their own platform and getting established. Even then there are no guarantees. Yet, we will see a number of new entrants doing exactly that. SkyBet, amongst others, have announced that they will launch a stand-alone poker platform in 2006, being developed by Orbis’s Openbet software. It will be interesting to see how well they will succeed in building liquidity. However unfortunately most of the newcomers will fail if they do not create adequate critical mass.
There are several poker solutions. One option for small brands would be to launch a skin or white label turnkey model with an established poker network. This takes most of the financial risks out of having to build an infrastructure. These partnerships can work well if your vendor is solely a poker software developer, as whilst a network provides the liquidity, they can also handle processing, customer service and the retention programmes which then allows brands to focus on driving traffic, player acquisition, affiliate marketing, etc.
[ 1 2 3 4 ] - This article continues with Part II.
Steve Cook is the Managing Director of Tribeca Tables Europe, Limited, registered in the Channel Island of Alderney. They are the world's first and largest independent network of ePoker brands and committed to providing innovative and reliable software solutions to clients exclusively in the arena of ePoker.