Interactive
ONLINE POKER ROUNDTABLE RELAX GAMING & EVENTBET
that is significantly higher than the average pre-pandemic, there will be a huge positive impact on the future growth of the vertical.
DS: One of the main reasons online poker has become so popular during the COVID-19 outbreak is due to the social element of the gameplay. With sports betting severely disrupted and many people looking for alternative forms of entertainment, online poker provides the perfect platform for friends to gather together and play one of the world’s most well-known forms of gambling.
Social distancing has been tough for everyone, and very much like online quizzes and house parties through video chat, the online poker lobby has provided a window of opportunity to keep in touch with friends and family.
While poker engagement has skyrocketed in recent months, we of course have to be realistic and expect numbers to fall slightly when normality returns. However, it’s safe to say the future of poker is healthy. For both new and existing players, they’re becoming more and more familiar with the experience, which is likely to bode well for the future. Retaining these users will be the next challenge, but we’re optimistic this period of activity will have convinced many that online poker is a fun and exciting activity beyond lockdown.
Do poker platforms have capacity to support poker at scale if player volumes continue to rocket?
P120 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
DS: Absolutely, building a strong customer base is vital to prolonging the future of online poker and platforms must be scalable to meet the demand. We have over 4.8million users playing on our servers across the globe and as we anticipate that figure to rise over the coming months, the robustness and stability of our platform will be tested. Tat’s why we continue to invest in our offering to ensure that we can grow alongside our operator partners. We’ve launched more than 100 poker rooms and have 32 different poker game types available.
MS: Te increased traffic was impossible to foresee and plan for, meaning that many systems and servers that have been pressure tested over the last couple of weeks have seen some performance issues here and there. We have monitored our systems extremely closely during this time and have made several performance improvements to ensure we can handle the load. I’m sure other companies have done the same and are ready for more players if they come.
Can lessons learned from the vertical’s revival be applied to other content streams?
MS: Tere for sure can be some overlap in initiatives or features in poker that can work for other products, as well as the opposite. Since we operate a multi-product business, we always take learnings from other verticals to ensure we maximise the entertainment value towards the players, so these types of initiatives are an ongoing process for us. Adopting a
If there’s one lesson to be learned, it’s remembering to keep revisiting your product offering and looking at ways of evolving the user
experience to keep players engaged. Trends and
behaviour change over time, and it’s important to adapt along the way.
mobile-first strategy and diversifying our offering from the market status quo are prime examples and have contributed the significant success of our poker product.
DS: If there’s one lesson to be learned, it’s remembering to keep revisiting your product offering and looking at ways of evolving the user experience to keep players engaged. Trends and behaviour change over time, and it’s important to adapt along the way. Poker has faced up to its issues and is now back on the rise to offer players something different than previously. One such example is the availability of casino games within a live poker room as a side bar option. We’ve invested in this product innovation for our own poker platform, which enables players to play slots during the quieter periods of a poker game without leaving the table. It’s initiatives like this that reduce the likelihood of churn while also making the experience more appealing to the Generation Z demographic that enjoy short-form content.
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