While the world’s regulated online poker market has shrunk by 23% over the past two years, US-friendly sites have been experiencing some impressive growth over the same period of time and continue to outperform their licensed competitors. Bodog, for instance, has grown by 43%, the Winning Poker Network (WPN) by 77%, and the Chico Poker Network by an impressive 125%, raising the question whether it is these sites innovations or their virtual monopoly over the US market which is driving their traffic forward. Bodog was one of the first operators to recognize the damage done by online grinders relieving amateur…

Given the secular decline of the online poker industry, Amaya (parent company of PokerStars) will be hard-pressed to double the size of its poker arm in the next five years. That’s one of the focal points of a new research report on Amaya authored by Adam Krejcik of Eilers Research and Online Poker Report publisher Chris Grove. Eilers has proven to be one of the more sobering (and accurate) voices with regards to online gaming revenue predictions. Its latest report continues that trend, and not without good reason. The online poker industry is in the midst of a multi-year downswing,…

It is no secret that as Europe’s most populous and affluent country, Germany also happens to be the continent’s biggest gambling market and in 2013 the nation of 80 million people generated $3.7 billion (€2.7 billion euro) in revenues, up by 5% compared to the previous year. In order to organize a framework for its burgeoning gambling industry, Germany introduced its Interstate Treaty on Gambling in 2012, but the piece of legislation has since drawn criticism from the EU, especially as it forbids all types of internet gambling with the exception of sports betting. One of Germany’s 16 states, however,…

The online poker debate in California is beginning to resemble the well-known scene from the Peanuts comics where Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown. The state of California (playing the role of Lucy in this production) continues to hold the football while the poker world runs up to kick out – with predictable results. It appeared that progress was being made when California’s online poker bill AB 431 cleared another important hurdle as it continues to navigate unchartered waters. But on the flip side, two California Gaming Control Commissioners left their positions, and the debate over bad actors went…

Billionaire Ronald Perelman, who is the chairman and largest stockholder of lottery and slot machine giant Scientific Games Corp., plans to support the presidential bid of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, despite the Republican candidate’s backing of legislation that would ban Internet gambling. Scientific Games, which is headquartered in Las Vegas, has a large interactive gaming division that operates online lotteries in the U.S. The company provides products to 39 of the 44 U.S. state-run lotteries and to 50 lottery countries. Last year, Graham and a Utah congressman to introduced legislation to ban online wagering in the U.S. The move…

The odds on betting chain Boylesports successfully buying Ladbrokes’ Irish operations from examinership are probably pretty long. Based on the vast majority of examinership processes, the incumbent owners tend to come out the far side still in possession of the business. This is especially true where the owner is a large British business, rather than a smaller entity in some kind of financial trouble. We have seen several cases during the recession where the Irish operations of a larger international plc have gone into examinership – usually under the heavy load of onerous property leases. And they have come out…