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The Future of Online Poker
Online Poker has been decreasing in volume for years. One of the main catalysts, quite obviously, was black friday. However, even now some of the major sites have been facing fairly large % decreases in volume over years.
For example, one of the major networks has seen a 23% decrease in volume year by year for around 3 years.
This would not be the only reason for online poker to die though - regulations and legislative measures are making it more and more difficult for people to play poker at home.
In your opinion, will online poker die? If so, when will it die? Do we need the US market back?
I think the answer to the first question is a fairly obvious yes and anyone who answers otherwise will not be allowed to enter Sky Poker forum again.
For example, one of the major networks has seen a 23% decrease in volume year by year for around 3 years.
This would not be the only reason for online poker to die though - regulations and legislative measures are making it more and more difficult for people to play poker at home.
In your opinion, will online poker die? If so, when will it die? Do we need the US market back?
I think the answer to the first question is a fairly obvious yes and anyone who answers otherwise will not be allowed to enter Sky Poker forum again.
Comments
1) No.
2) Never. It may not reach it's previous highs, but it won't "die".
3) For a site like Sky Poker, which is exclusively GB & ROI facing, no, it makes little difference.
It is correct to say that globally, Online Poker has declined y-o-y for a few years now.
However, a few sites have bucked that trend, & Sky Poker is one of them, as industry sources will confirm.
You will see more sites doing the same things soon, too, some already are, more will follow.
It's a fact of life, the poker economy is founded on the recreational players, not the nosebleed stake guys. Both are important, but it's a pyramid, & the foundation, composed of people playing for fun, is crucial.
I don't get involved in the strategy & policy stuff upstairs any more, but I'd wager anything they would never allow HUD's.
This policy gets poo-pooed on 2+2 & the like by the Big Boys, but no matter, it's not going to change, & they only have self-interest at heart in their comments.
PS - welcome to the Community.
To be honest, it still seems inconceivable that the US will be (largely) shut out of the market for the long term, what with being 'the land of the free' and the capitalist centre of the world. When they get the green light to open again, player numbers will boom again, even if not quite the same as they once did (given that a few recs will be fearful of fingers being burnt again).
Although it's communist nature may make it less likely, I also wonder whether the Chinese may one day enter the online poker market in some fashion. It maybe that they'd only ever countenance a state-owned, Chinese-only platform, but if they did open the door to their citizens playing wherever they liked it could make the 2003/04 boom look tiny by comparison.
Echo the points about removing the HUD/tracker software though - coaching sites are one thing, no issue with people wanting to better themselves, but the benefit of having that software vs recs can't be helpful... yes it's available to all, but in the early days of playing it seem unlikely that people will auto sign-up for a product like that when they just want to splash some chips around and learn the basics of the game.
It feels like that software also adds to some of the wider fears of the safety/legitimacy of the game... ie less experienced players fearing that they are playing bots or that people can see their cards.
Ps - does the news today about Sky buying up business across Europe have any impact on the poker site? Will this be a window of opportunity to expand to Germany / Italy etc in the not-too-distant future?
Cracking set of results, though.
pretty sad really cause we nearly at that point anyway
good luck
greater future in MTT though, people love to dream/gambol etc..
- cash games will die 100% gtd
poker itself is probably at a point now where holdem is getting much harder to play because all the recs that we saw joining 10 years ago have given up and as it's on a PC it's easy for them to think that the game was rigged rather than bad play. when there was lots of recs we could do get lots of money through a tight aggressive style as we knew they were very happy to make loose calls.
what i think will happen is holdem will die out and people will move over to PLO &PLO8. holdem might need recs for the best of value but PLO & PLO8 needs aggressive play more than anything and those who are most likely to play aggressive are regs.