Shot fired in the war on poker

Gamesys’ much-awaited real-money poker launch marks the latest shot fired in the surprising war to save egaming’s oft-forgotten fourth vertical. While many operators have seemingly given up on poker, happy to manage decline and invest elsewhere, we’ve seen a real resistance movement develop over the past year or more.

Unibet, Microgaming, 888 and PokerStars are reinventing what poker means both to the businesses themselves and the consumers. While Twitch streaming is taking the game to a new audience and in a new direction, with new initiatives such as the Global Poker League looking to legitimise the game as an esport.

A cynic could describe this as the last death throes of an injured animal, as for all this effort and energy poker remains in something of a crisis state. The latest numbers from the British Gambling Commission showed revenues from poker represented just 4% of the sector and even the mighty PokerStars is struggling to post growth.

PokerStars’ parent company Amaya said poker revenue fell 1% on a constant currency basis in Q4 2015 despite throwing money at the problem with major TV and social media campaigns featuring football superstars Ronaldo and Neymar. But it’s fighting hard to return to growth and the firm is in the midst of a huge cultural shift trying to move towards a recreationally-focused product with major changes to its VIP programme and the launch of new game formats.

It’s a model Unibet, 888 and Microgaming are already deeply invested in, with the industry tearing down the skill-dominated marketing wall it had built and rebuilding a game with fun at its core. At the heart of all most of this reinvention is the rediscovery of poker as a social gambling game and it’s clear this has driven Gamesys’ latest launch.

Finding the fun?

“Poker is a game rich in social interaction, but in recent times it is our belief that this aspect has been diminished in favour of financial motivations,” Simon Mizzi, Gamesys, marketing director told EGR yesterday. “Wild Seat Poker is our first step at offering players a game that not only brings the true essence of poker to life, but also fosters an environment that focuses on entertainment to engage our players,” he added.

What this means in practice is taking the bingo model of chat hosts and turning them into “hosts” who play in tournaments and talk and interact with players, with any money they win returned through weekly tournaments. It is also built around the jackpot sit&go concept that has revolutionised the game with players able to win up to 10,000 x their buy-in.

The first jackpot poker games were found on French poker site Winamax, where they were known as Expressos, and the operator continues to be one of the most inventive and creative in the poker space. Its relentless focus on innovation and fun is part of the reason it’s the clear market leader in France, well ahead of PokerStars. And this should give hope to a sector battered and bruised by the 800lb PokerStars gorilla.

Partypoker is the latest to launch jackpot sit&gos, following most of the major suppliers, but it’s not enough to simply copy what PokerStars is doing, or who they are copying. Gamesys has taken the jackpot poker concept one step further with prizes only revealed at the end of the tournament, adding a Bullseye-esque “look what you could have won” element to the game. Along with big colourful graphics, as also to be found at Unibet, the hope is it recreates some of the excitement, fun and interactivity of the early days of online poker.

Two complementary directions

Interestingly, at the same time we’re seeing moves in entirely the opposite direction to reinvent poker as a form of esport. The GPL is live streaming hundreds of hours of live poker between the top poker players on the planet in a hope to build an audience of poker fans once more in love with the game. And new launches such as Hands of Victory are hoping to reinvent the game itself for a wider “gamer” audience.

And the two are not in conflict. Players engaged with poker will seek out many different forms of the game and products that suit the need for immediate gratification; gambling or in-depth gaming can all sit alongside each other. But it’s clear the current model isn’t working and the big changes we’re seeing are, if anything, not big enough. Gamesys’ model is a step in the right direction, but bigger strides still need to be taken.

As the industry battle shifts once more from acquisition to retention, poker can still have a crucial role to play. It’s a game people still play in their millions, even if its online incarnation has become increasingly unpopular over the years. If the industry can once again fall in love with poker there is good reason to expect the players to follow. And that would be a huge win for all.