Poll: Will PokerStars Power Up be a success?
This week we ask whether the esports-inspired format can bring a new audience to poker
PokerStars last week hailed the launch of its new esports-inspired poker game Power Up, which it said would introduce poker to a new generation of mobile gamers.
The game is similar to Texas Hold Em, but players are given special powers to use tactically, such as the ability to see the next card in the deck.
The company has spent more than a year on its development, and has high hopes that the innovation can help arrest its declining poker revenues.
And esports is definitely a growth industry with esports betting expected to be a $1.8bn industry by 2020, according to Statista.
But reviews for the new format have so far been mixed, with some praising the new level of skill and gamification elements, while others have suggested PokerStars should “stick to poker”.
The game has also had some initial integration teething problems.
And Power Up would certainly not be the first poker innovation to fail. Last year for instance, PokerStars scrapped its Duel app after just four months, telling EGR: “One of the most important things to realise is that in order to innovate, we must try many different things and in doing so we must not be afraid of failing.”
Other games that sought to combine poker and esports have also come and gone without making a major impact. Kim Lund, the mastermind of the Hands of Victory game, which was based on a similar concept to Power Up, said recently he was having to rethink the game, having overestimated the gambling industry’s appetite for innovation.
With that in mind we want to know whether PokerStars Power Up is headed for success, or whether it will be yet another failed innovation?
POLL: Will PokerStars' new Power Up format be a success? https://t.co/qXmM5vL9Tx
— EGR Global (@EGRIntel) October 16, 2017