- Key stories on regulatory changes with history made in liquidity sharing in both the US and Europe.
- Product innovation a key theme throughout 2018.
- Stiff competition among online poker’s biggest operators.
Last year was perhaps the most significant for online poker in a decade, with key developments in regulation, product development and competition. Below we hand-pick one story a month for the year of 2018 that we feel shaped the industry going into 2019.
The year started with PokerStars being the first out of the gate with a French/Spanish player pool. In February, partypoker signaled its plan to aggressively make inroads into the live poker scene with a record-breaking schedule for its Barcelona stop.
Full year financial results started coming in March, with PokerStars touting annual growth despite regulatory pressures. In April, PRO revealed that PokerStars was working on two new poker games, setting the tone for a year of intense product investment.
In May, WSOP.com made history with the first three-state shared liquidity pool between New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada. In June, Poker Industry PRO released two new in-depth reports into the online poker industry, available to all PRO subscribers.
In July, The Stars Group completed its audacious purchase of Sky Betting and Gaming for $4.7 billion, one of the industry’s biggest acquisitions. It now forms one of the largest publicly traded online gambling companies in the world. A month later, the company revealed plans for the largest ever online tournament series with a record-breaking $70 million WCOOP schedule.
September saw the industry suffer the most organized and widespread distributed denial of service attacks in history.
In October, 888 reported a particularly weak H1 2018 for online poker. In what goes down as one of the most telling statements of the year, it blasted the competition for “old school tactics” that poached its customers.
Meanwhile Kindred continued to grow its Unibet Poker product, reporting 44% quarterly growth in November. However, it remains only in line with the growth in the dominant sports and casino verticals, leading PRO to wonder whether it can take the next step and compete with the industry’s biggest poker operators.
And of course, in December partypoker made history for running the largest single online poker tournament ever with the $20 million MILLIONS Online handily covering its guarantee. But at what cost?
A New Era for European Online Poker: PokerStars France and Spain Combine Player Pools (January 2018)
Top line: “PokerStars has become the very first operator to share its online poker player pool between Spain and France, a key milestone in the path towards opening the player pools in regulated European markets.”
Key takeaways:
- “The French and Spanish regulators have done an excellent job in enabling a dramatic improvement in the gaming experience in their jurisdictions.”
- The Spin and Go lobby appears separate, tournaments above €250 buy-in are exclusive to France, and only Spain has a casino tab.
“The Biggest Prize Pool In Europe”: Partypoker Announces Giant Barcelona Festival (February 2018)
Top line: “Partypoker has announced the full schedule of its “MILLIONS” Grand Final stop in Barcelona. Now promising €23 million in total guaranteed prizes across all events, it is being billed as the “largest festival with the highest guaranteed prize pool in history.”
Key takeaways:
- €23m is guaranteed across the festival making it the “largest festival with the highest guaranteed prizepool in the history of poker tournaments ever held in Europe.”
- “We are thrilled to be hosting the inaugural partypoker Millions Grand Final, the festival with the highest guaranteed prizepool in the history of poker tournaments ever held in Europe,” Raúl Horta, Poker Manager of Casino Barcelona said.
- Partypoker ambassadors such as Ike Haxton who was signed on partypoker to are expected at the event in Barcelona.
Despite Regulatory Headwinds, The Stars Group Grew Online Poker in 2017 (March 2018)
Top line: “The Stars Group has reported incremental growth in its online poker vertical despite tough regulatory pressures throughout 2017 and the flourishing online casino and sports vertical that continues to exert a cannibalizing effect on the business.”
Key takeaways:
- Total revenue from online poker hit $234.4 million in Q4 2017, up 8% year-over-year.
- The operator pointed to the commercial rollout of Power Up, and the upcoming Poker Players Championship, as recent successes.
- Investment will continue in 2018 in poker marketing, lobbying, infrastructure and growth initiatives.
Showtime and Spin & Goal: PokerStars Hints at New Game Novelties (April 2018)
Top line: “Not one but two new games are set to debut on PokerStars soon, according to the new graphic files updated in the online poker client last week.”
Key takeaways:
- Details on the two new titles have not been revealed.
- It seems likely that “Showtime” will be a new game variant with a twist on no limit hold’em—potentially where the player shows one or more hole cards.
- Spin & Goal appears to be a promotional take on Spin & Go with a World Cup tie-in.
WSOP Makes History With First Three-State Online Poker Player Pool in the United States (May 2018)
Top line: “WSOP.com, through its partner 888, has connected its two player pools in a historic moment for regulated online poker in the United States.”
Key takeaways:
- The new shared player pool has come in on schedule and without any apparent technical issues.
- Nevada players need to sign up again but can take advantage of a signup bonus; New Jersey players have a $1000 reload bonus.
- Combined, the new tri-state network should average around 240 cash game seats, enough to make it the clear leader in New Jersey.
Poker Industry PRO Releases Two New Reports on the Online Poker Industry (June 2018)
Top line: “Poker Industry PRO is excited to announced the publication of new in-depth reports on the online poker industry, available today to all subscribers.”
Key takeaways:
- “After months of team effort, we’re very excited to publish our biggest and most ambitious release of reports to date.”
- The Online Poker Difference covers all major aspects of what makes online poker distinct to other online gaming verticals, and argues why poker should be approached differently.
- State of the Online Poker Industry builds on that foundation, covering all the latest news in the industry and looks forward to anticipated developments.
- All PRO subscribers have access to all new and existing reports without any additional fee.
The Stars Group Completes $4.7bn Sky Bet Acquisition (July 2018)
Top line: “Global online gaming group The Stars Group (TSG) has completed its acquisition of Sky Betting and Gaming (SBG) in what the company says makes it the world’s largest publicly listed online gaming company.”
Key takeaways:
- With SBG joining TSG’s existing PokerStars brands, along CrownBet and William Hill Australia, all acquired in 2018, the company now claims to have a near-equal revenue diversification between poker, casino and sports.
- “We believe this combination along with our combined online casino offerings positions The Stars Group for continued growth in the evolving online gaming industry.”
- “This transaction creates the world’s largest publicly listed online gaming company and unites two iconic brand portfolios with strong technology platforms and teams.”
PokerStars’ WCOOP Becomes Three-Tiered, with $70 Million Guaranteed Across 182 Events (August 2018)
Top line: “PokerStars, as always known to raise the bar when it comes to hosting online tournament series, has released the schedule for the seventeenth edition of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) which promises to be the operator’s most ambitious series to date.”
Key takeaways:
- Starting on September 2, over $116 million will be guaranteed in prize pools of which more than $70 million will come from WCOOP alone.
- In total, there will be 182 tournaments spread across 61 events with each of them featuring three-tiered buy-ins.
- Other highlights of the series include three phase tourneys with buy-ins $2.20, $22, and $215 which will start running from mid-August.
888poker Becomes Latest Victim of DDoS Attacks Plaguing the Online Poker Industry (September 2018)
Top line: “It appears that the wave of industry-wide Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have impacted yet another online poker operator. 888poker, the poker network of the global gaming giant 888 Holdings, confirmed that it was the victim of a severe denial of service attack.”
Key takeaways:
- 888poker becomes the latest operator to suffer DDoS attacks.
- The operator sent out an email to its customers and confirmed the nature of the attacks.
- The US and global market leader in Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS), DraftKings, has also acknowledged becoming the victim of recent cyber attacks.
888 Blasts Partypoker’s “Old School Tactics” in Battle to Revive Online Poker Vertical (October 2018)
Top line: “Online gaming giant 888 Holdings has partly blamed its weak performance in online poker on its competitors using “old-school tactics” to poach some of its players, according to statements from executives last week.”
Key takeaways:
- Partypoker is now ahead of 888 in cash game traffic and online poker tournaments.
- 888 says this is partly due to “old school” tactics of giving away big bonuses and “inflating tournament guarantees.”
Unibet Poker Continues to Grow, But Can it Take the Next Step? (November 2018)
Top line: “Unibet Poker reported 47% growth in its online poker vertical last quarter. At £4.4 million, it is not just the group’s best Q3 on record, but it returns the vertical to the level of expansion not seen since mid-2017.”
Key takeaways:
- While growth in poker so far this year is at 23%, that is in-line with casino and sports growth at Kindred.
- As a share of group revenue, online poker is still a tiny 1.9%.
- Its major competitors—PokerStars, 888, and partypoker—are all now aggressively seeking to acquire poker customers for cross-sell.
- To stay relevant, Unibet may need to look at heavier investment.
History is Made as Partypoker MILLIONS Online Collects $22 Million in Entry Fees (December 2018)
Top line: “Yesterday was a historic day for partypoker as the $20 million guaranteed MILLIONS Online successfully breached its highly ambitious eight-figure guarantee to set a record for the biggest ever online poker tournament.”
Key takeaways:
- MILLIONS Online attracted total entries of 4367 to build a staggering prize pool of $21,835,000.
- Out of 4367 total entries, 2190 were unique and the remaining were re-entries.
- Partypoker now holds the record for the biggest poker tournament in the history of online poker.
