Sports remains strong in ARJEL analysis
Poker GGR drops year-on-year, with a number of operators exiting the market in recent weeks.
A strong sports betting market helped mask deficiencies in poker as French regulator ARJEL reported a slight increase in gross gaming revenue in its market analysis for the three months ended 30 June.
The overall total of 170m marked an increase of 8.3% compared to the corresponding period in 2011, with sports (up 39% to 35m) and horse betting (up 20% to 65m) overshadowing the decline in poker (down 11% to 70m).
Poker tournament entries actually continued to increase, rising 24% year-on-year to 345m, but amounts bet in cash games dropped 18% to 1.52bn. In like-for-like terms the decline was only 6%, with the total falling to 1.74bn, with a number of French-licensed operators having changed their calculation methods for bets placed in order to fall in line with the remainder of the market.
Of the mainland départements, La Creuse was the region to lose the most poker players compared to the corresponding period in 2011, with a year-on-year decline of some 64%. Some of the country’s offshore territories also experienced a sharp decline with Guadeloupe losing 30% of its players and Réunion 21%.
Amounts staked in horse and sports betting also rose, climbing 9% and 28% respectively compared to Q2 2011. However, younger sports bettors were found to have been abandoning French-licensed sites, with the proportion of active sports bettors aged between 18 and 24 dropping from 40% to 24% of the country’s total year-on-year.
Several poker operators have been forced to withdraw from the market in recent weeks, many citing unworkable conditions as the reason for exiting or merging with a fellow operator, and the difficult working conditions were hinted at by the 9% year-on-year drop in the number of poker players, although there was an increase in the number of players over the age of 55.
Both Chilipoker.fr and Titanpoker.fr have exited altogether while Pokerleaders.fr has delayed its launch, and mypok merged with PokerXtrem earlier this month. According to Pokerscout only two dot.fr poker rooms, Winamax and PokerStars, average more than 1,000 cash game players at any time.
The declining poker figures could speed up calls for the merging of player bases across a number of regulated European jurisdictions, as talks with Italian regulator AAMS and Spain’s DGOJ continue. The three regulatory bodies, along with Portugal’s Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa, met earlier this month to discuss the possibility of a unified European regulatory framework.