Is the coronavirus poker boom over?

[BILTIZ]

just a simple question
in your opinion is the coronavirus online poker boom over ?
is traffic back to normal
did the poker sites benefit from this opportunity
and where do you think it is going from now on ?

 

[fundiver199]

Pretty much yes. Volume on most poker sites are back to pre COVID-19 levels. The evolution of online poker from this point on will largely depend on other factors, which is anyones guess.

 

[DS3]

Yes, it's over and some insiders think the online poker sites did not really do themselves any favors.

First the returning recreational players tended to get taken to the cleaners by more experienced players. That must leave a bad taste in the mouth and with increased financial insecurity, I doubt many will want to keep 'experimenting' with poker.

The second thing (that several pros have talked about) was everyone saturating the market with this or that series or promotions. There is just so much money in the poker ecosystem and the fact that Covid-19 lay offs drove business for fairly brief window was ignoring the fact that the world was facing a severe financial tightening.


My guess would be any long term increases due to Covid-19 will be negligible unless the online sites find some exciting products to entice new customers and that would appear fairly unlikely.

In the longer term I think poker also needs to look at how it will promote itself to an expanding market. The televised live events should be a big draw to new players, the EPT and wsop being the biggest, but the WSOP live is now stuck behind PokerGo's paywall.

I am a broken record on this but it was/is a huge mistake. The broader public is not going to ante up a subscription to watch the WSOP so all PokerGo has done is make money off a closed market - so therefore a lack of interest and new customers to poker.

The biggest and most prestigious poker event of the year hidden from view is not a smart long term strategy

 

[Cooking]

I think it's over for now, because most of the countries are coming out of the quarantine period and returning to normal life, so, the recreational players don't have the same amount of time than before to play online. I think the future for online poker in the next few months is coming back to what is was before unless the pandemic get worse again.

 

[COMIRRR]

I know people who prefer the game in the casino and do not adapt to the online game so they will give up when they reopen

 

[fundiver199]

First the returning recreational players tended to get taken to the cleaners by more experienced players. That must leave a bad taste in the mouth and with increased financial insecurity, I doubt many will want to keep 'experimenting' with poker.

To be fair it is difficult to see, what poker sites could really have done about this. Its just the nature of the game, that recreational players lose their money to regulars. The job of poker sites is to continue to attract new recreational players by offering exciting games, promotions and a hassle free playing experience.

The second thing (that several pros have talked about) was everyone saturating the market with this or that series or promotions. There is just so much money in the poker ecosystem and the fact that Covid-19 lay offs drove business for fairly brief window was ignoring the fact that the world was facing a severe financial tightening.

This is definitely true. I guess, poker sites assumed, the good times would last forever, which with hindsight was an obvious mistake. Guarantied price pools were jacked up all over the line only to have to be rolled back again, when overlays started to appear.

In the longer term I think poker also needs to look at how it will promote itself to an expanding market. The televised live events should be a big draw to new players, the EPT and WSOP being the biggest, but the WSOP live is now stuck behind PokerGo's paywall.

Definitely agree about this. The fact, that poker appeared on main stream TV was a big contributing factor behind the poker boom 10-15 years ago. TV is a little outdated these days, but putting WSOP behind a paywall will not do anything good for poker in the long run.

 

[MattRyder]

Poker boom? I missed it. Ah well ...

 

[DS3]

To be fair it is difficult to see, what poker sites could really have done about this. Its just the nature of the game, that recreational players lose their money to regulars. The job of poker sites is to continue to attract new recreational players by offering exciting games, promotions and a hassle free playing experience.



This is definitely true. I guess, poker sites assumed, the good times would last forever, which with hindsight was an obvious mistake. Guarantied price pools were jacked up all over the line only to have to be rolled back again, when overlays started to appear.



Definitely agree about this. The fact, that poker appeared on main stream TV was a big contributing factor behind the poker boom 10-15 years ago. TV is a little outdated these days, but putting WSOP behind a paywall will not do anything good for poker in the long run.

I am quite curious to see how PokerGo looks to the future.

I think they have been clever with bagging all the WSOP content and other content such as party poker live streams. But if this is making a profit (I presume) for them it is not expanding Poker in any way. The industry must realize this was short sighted. Doug Polk is the only party who publicly commented some time ago it did not make sense.

However, it did occur to me if PokerGo is astute, the move would be to produce such content and distribute it to key channels, terrestrial or cable as that could prove more profitable in the long run. Those channels could simply add the content to existing subscriptions and in essence such content would be free to air again.

But I will not hold my breath. Cary Katz family made their fortune in student loans, an aggressive and predatory business. I can't imagine he's going to suddenly change course and use PokerGo to promote poker to a wider audience - but we will have to wait and see.

 

[Vallet]

Either the online poker boom is over, or new players have run out of deposits and funds.cguru:

 

[edenman1]

I am noticing a few less players now, but overall there has been an increase it seems..

 

[jorgejarapy]

From my point of view, online gaming should have increased as a result of this situation, since no casino or most of them were not enabled, now how to measure the frequency of online players in my case I would not know how to do it

 

[eluwinka0]

I think it sadly is. There are many overlays recently, even on pokerstars where they were very rare

 

[DS3]

I think it sadly is. There are many overlays recently, even on pokerstars where they were very rare

Yup. I think the basic issue is there is only so much money in the poker ecosystem. \

That Covid-19 brought either players back or new ones to the tables was great but predictably short lived. Outside of the wealthiest among us, even those who are solid in a financial sense are seeing more and more long term effects of the financial destruction in the wake of the pandemic - and we are still in the first wave.

Retail, restaurants, small business and large, the travel industry all are being savaged and against that background noise of attrition, I think less and less will be in the mood to play poker and essentially the indiustry will be left with the hard core enthusiasts that were playing prior to the pandemic.