- Online poker revenues from the French market are down 2%.
- Cash games are down 3% but tournament entries are up 14%.
- he number of players who have wagered over €100k in the quarter has dropped by 20%.
ARJEL’s detailed fourth quarter report shows a year on year decline of 9% in the number of active poker players.
The quarterly report provides details that shed more light on the figures released last month in the brief annual report. The numbers and graphs in this report suggest that online poker has now stabilized and is unlikely to decline much further.
Overall, online poker revenues are down 2%. Cash games are down 3% but tournament entries are up 14%. The report notes that total tournament entry fees would need to have risen by 20% to make up for the lost revenues from cash games.
Compared with the same quarter last year, bets on cash games have dropped from €1,869m to €1,569m while tournament entries only rose from €324m to €367m.
The cash game fall was notable both for its prevalence with younger players and also with the high volume grinders. The number of players who have wagered over €100k in the quarter has dropped by 20%.
The report also reveals that the French poker playing population is aging as the proportion of the player pool in the 18-24 year old age group has fallen from 24% to 18%.
The French market has seen growth in some groups including women. A total of 12% of French online players are now women, up from 11% last year, and the numbers of players accessing online poker from mobile devices has doubled with over a quarter of players getting in at least one game of poker from their smartphones or tablets.
A grand total of 694k players have played at least one game of poker during the last three months of 2012.
Poker was the only regulated gambling area to see revenues fall. A surge in sports betting before the holiday season resulted in a 39% increase in revenues for that sector.