The state of online poker 2009
By admin | December 28, 2009
That is a pretty big subject to cover in one short blog post. So much has happened in the past year that it would be impossible to cover it adequately in one article.
But there is no real need to do that.
We can simply cover the general tone of the poker world in 2009, and see where that leaves us for 2010.
Closures and Amalgamations
The main theme of 2009 in the world of poker was the closure of some poker rooms. For various reasons dozens of online poker sites have shut down.
In some cases, multiple rooms were owned by one entity, and probably due to the changed economic situation it made sense to amalgamate all their poker rooms into one. That should give them less overhead and associated expenses, but have pretty much the same player base and revenue.
Other rooms just ceased to operate but did at least transfer their players, and more importantly the players’ bankrolls, to a different site. Bugsys club decided to close for their own reasons and transferred their player base to Poker Stars. I would imagine, as Poker Stars is the biggest online poker room, that many of Bugsys players already had accounts at Stars, but at least their bankrolsl were safe.
Other rooms simply closed and left their players high and dry. Pitbull Poker finally gave in and shut their doors overnight and with no official warning. Although the writing was on the wall for that room for the preceding two months as they underwnet an ad hoc investigation on the 2+2 forum.
Any player keeping up to date with that investigation as it was ongoing would not have been surprised at the sudden closure. And it seems that the word had gotten out through poker media channels that the room was in trouble as there were very few players reported as playing there in the week before the closure. By very few, we understand that there were fewer than one hundred active players there, and that would most likely include Pitbulls own house players.
Unfortunately, those players that had bankrolls still with Pitbull seem to have been out of luck, and will count themselves very fortunate if they ever see any of that money again.
Absolute Poker and UltimateBet Poker, having miraculously survived their superuser scandals, amalgamated into one network, but retain their individual identities as poker sites. As they were owned by the same outfit anyway this was probably just a marketing move.
There was a lot of coming and going in the Prima Network, with rooms closing and opening and moving around.
Doyles Poker and Mansion both moved networks but both remain open for business.
Online Poker in 2010
So what are we likely to see in the online poker scene in 2010?
Well, it seems safe to say that the poker boom has finally passed and we are now left with a more traditional market. Markets are the same in certain aspects no matter what is being traded. In online poker, we have a fairly steady set of numbers regarding online players, new players that can be expected and the dropping off of some old players, either because they have gone broke or simply grown tired of the online game.
In the year ahead, I think we can expect to see a slow down in the growth of online player numbers similar to what is happening in all other industries and this can be attributed to the global economic downturn. We will probably still see the same rate of new player acquisition among poker rooms, but the value of those players will inevitably drop as the cash squeeze hits disposable income everywhere.
This will undoubtedly have a knock-on effect that should lead to even more poker room closures and amalgamations. I would imagine that it will seem sensible for some smaller network rooms to join forces and share player bases, so we can expect to see some of that.
I would also guess that smaller and newer poker networks will come under pressure this year and we may see one or two complete networks fold outright, with only a small number of thier skins being in a position to survive and re-launch on another network. My main guess would be that the Everleaf Gaming Network will not be in business as we know it now (or even at all) by the end of the coming year.
I would also guess that the Merge Poker Network will struggle to survive this year and will need either a serious rethink of their marketing strategy or else an infusion of money and talent in order to stay in business.
With the reduced poker revenue available I think we will see some poker sites start to make savings or shave costs by trying to reduce their affiliate related costs. This is a short-sighted move that will probably seem like a good idea to less-than-able poker site managers, and will have the expected affect of finishing off any struggling room that thies it.
But the bigger poker sites will probably also try to squeeze their affiliates too, not to stay afloat but to increase profits. If they squeeze too hard we may even see an affiliate revolt against the larger rooms accompanied by a drive to elevate a secondary, but solid, online poker room up to the ranks of a Stars or Tilt.
That would be very good for all involved with online poker (even the bigger rooms though I would not expect them to realize it) but will need a big effort if it were to be achieved.
The bottom line here is that 2010 will be no better for online poker, and may even be a harder year overall than the one just passed.
From a players perspective it means that you must be even more careful when deciding to deposit into an online poker room. Do your research, and then do some more. Be guided by your poker portal of choice but remember that poker portals have a relationship with the online poker rooms that they promote. While that can be a good thing, that can also be very bad for the players (remember CardSpike anyone?).
Be guided by your poker affilaite but be sure that you trust them first.
Have a great year.
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