On the release of its full year results for 2011, the giant gambling entity, Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment made several comments regarding the online poker industry and the effect that the downfall of sites such as Full Tilt Poker had on Bwin Poker and the industry at large.
“The indictment of the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet on 15 April 2011 represented the start of what we believe will prove to be a fundamental shift in the shape and structure of the global online poker market,” read the report.
“With the exception of PokerStars, all of these sites have now closed. PokerStars’ relative size meant that it was able to capture the lion’s share of Full Tilt’s non-US players, consolidating its position as market leader in most territories.”
The company said that all this made for a challenging operating environment for Bwin’s poker business, although it believes that it can remain one of the largest networks in the market. The report predicted that Bwin’s position will be further enhanced when the group pools its player liquidity across its poker brands in the dotcom and ring fenced markets in France and Italy in 2012.
While poker made up 27.8% of Bwin.Party’s overall revenue in 2010, this figure dropped to 25.7% in 2011.
The report also predicted that we will soon be seeing the convergence of real money gaming and social gaming. “This represents a major opportunity forBwin.Party and we have of initiatives already underway in these areas that we expect to drive value for shareholders in the medium to long term,” it read.
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