Monthly Archives: July 2013

A recent report by Poker Stars shows that Asian countries like South Korea and China, as well as Russia, are the fastest growing markets for online poker. While its popularity is growing across other markets too, such as Peru, Brazil, New Zealand, Central Europe and Western Europe, these still lag behind these three countries. The research also found that the popularity of the online game in the United States, Canada and Mexico has been dropping post UIEGA as regulations there that make it harder to access online poker sites.

In the US, online poker is not legalised at the federal level and the different laws in force in various states can cause confusion among players. Besides the three states that have already allowed online gambling – New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware – a number of other states, such as California, Michigan, Mississippi, Illinois, Florida and Connecticut, are getting closer to legalising it too.

The PokerStars report noted that while the expansion of online poker in North America has not stopped over the past few years, the rate at which it is growing has slowed down.

China is the most populous online gaming market globally, with 120 million avid gamers. Playing games online has become so popular that even the almighty Communist Party of China has given up fighting it and has started creating its own games that show the population how to be better citizens under a socialist regime.

Business opportunities in such a lucrative market are huge. Technology research firm Strategy Analytics recently calculated that the global online gaming market yielded $12 billion (£8 billion) in revenue in 2012, up from $5.2 billion (£3.5 billion) five years ago. It also estimated that the total annual revenue will reach about $15 billion (£10 billion) by the end of this year, with China accounting for the more than half of this, at about $8 billion (£5.4 billion).

The biggest player in the market is Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings Ltd, which holds a market share of about 40%. The company also made a move on the international market by acquiring about 48% of US-based Epic Games in 2012. Epic produces several popular series, including Gears of War and Infinity Blade.

Digital Pay2Play entertainment is proving that heritage brands can move seamlessly into online. Adopting board games for mobile and tablets is a mainstream trend now because the games themselves are classic and they never grow old. These board games are becoming increasingly popular in their mobile and tablet variants, as more and more users pay to play Scrabble, Monopoly or other classic board games.

Recent data reveals that Scrabble, owned by Hasbro Inc., is the 14th best-selling app ever for Apple. However, even this achievement is dwarfed by another classic, Zynga’s “Words With Friends,” which currently ranks at number eight. Other board games that have enjoyed a surge in digital popularity include TheCodingMonkeys’ Carcassonne, Hasbro’s Monopoly and Settlers of Catan by United Soft Media Verlag.

Alongside the growing sales of online board games, many experts agree that there is a trend for crossover of sales. For example, between 30% and 40% of the people who buy the Ticket To Ride app will end up purchasing the physical board game, Eric Hautemont, chief executive at Days of Wonder Inc., told the Wall Street Journal. The company owns and manufactures the multiple-award-winning game.

Meanwhile, Thorsten Suckow, who leads the project overseeing the Settlers of Catan board game on mobile devices, commented the game has sold more than 750,000 units for iPhones and iPads since the versions were rolled out in 2009 and 2010 respectively. However, buying the app is just the beginning, as many people also purchase expansion maps.

All operating casinos in Atlantic City have applied for an online gambling permit, it was announced after the deadline for applications on 30 June expired. In the last few days Betfair and Poker Stars have announced tie-ups with Trump Plaza and Resorts Casino respectively. Non-US egaming companies wanteing to tie-up with land-based resorts have until the 29^th of July to file their applications. The Borgata, which is co-owned by Boyd Gaming and MGM Resorts, and Caesars Entertainment were among the first casinos to declare their intention to team up with an online gaming provider.

Atlantic City has a total of 12 casinos and they all filed documentation to New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), hoping to secure a permit prior to the official launch of online casinos in November. The earliest date set for the launch of Internet gambling is 23 November but regulators are indicating that this could be delayed until 2014.

In February, New Jersey joined Nevada and Delaware to become the third state to legalise online gambling. However, New Jersey will allow many more forms of gambling compared to Nevada, for instance, where only poker is allowed.

Analysts estimate that while Nevada’s Internet gambling market could generate annual revenue of between $50 million and $250 million, projections for New Jersey far exceed these estimates, with expectations varying from $500 million to $1 billion per year.

Asia Pacific continues to lead the way in social and online games playing according to recent data from comScore. Almost 48 million Internet users in the Asia Pacific access an online gaming site on a daily basis. Worldwide, 145 million users played online games every day in April, the data reveals.

Europe is another key market, with 45.6 million daily players, followed by North America, where 30.3 million people access online games daily. Latin America comes fourth with 14.9 million daily players but experts predict that the Latin American market is set to develop further over the next few years.

Asia remains a key market for investors, with various companies planning to expand in the region. Philippines-based listed gaming PhilWeb, for example, has recently announced plans to expand its operations to Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Palau, Nepal and Mongolia this year.

This dynamic growth is all the more interesting when you consider that over 1 billion smartphones will be shipped annually by 2016 but that less that 15% of phones in the world in use today (over 6 billion phones) are smartphones. With mobile gaming growth outstripping landline broadband gaming growth the potential for digital Pay2Play entertainment remains vibrant.