Italy poker cash games fall 20% in September
Country's poker market suffers mixed fortunes as cash games stakes down by a fifth but tournament turnover up 16%
Italy’s online poker market continues to contract as performance figures for September show cash game stakes in the country fell by 20%, outweighing what was a rare monthly increase in tournament turnover.
According to figures seen by eGaming Review, stakes for online cash games were down by a fifth from 415m in September 2013 to 330m last month, while tournament turnover increased 16% from 62.2m to 72.5m.
The data also showed PokerStars had tightened its stranglehold on the Italian poker market with the now Amaya Gaming-owned poker giant claiming a 55% share of the cash game market and almost three-quarters (73%) of tournament play.
PokerStars partly attributed its strong tournament performance to its recently launched mobile and social-friendly Spin&Go variant, which the operator said proved the market still had growth potential.
“Thanks to Spin&Go we reached the highest ever share in tournaments and it’s a clear signal that with product innovation and good marketing communication poker can still grow in Italy,” a PokerStars spokesperson told eGR.
The news comes after eGR last week revealed Italy’s online sports betting market continued to show signs of improvement with GGR and stakes up 76% and 7% respectively.
The figures were boosted by the arrival of bet365 into the regulated sportsbook market with the operator contributing 12m of the total 133.6m monthly stakes after having launched on 22 September.