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• About Us
• History
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• Global Online Gaming Market
• Poker
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• Licensing and Regulations

Poker is one of the world's most popular card games and has been around in various forms for decades if not centuries. Whilst North America probably has the most poker players in the world, the game has also continued to increase in popularity in many other countries. This growth in popularity is believed to be due to the televising of high value tournaments, such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour, as well as the strong growth in online poker.

The strength of the internet as a gaming medium and the growth in the popularity of poker as a leisure pursuit in international markets have collectively delivered strong growth in both the number of people playing the game online and the total amount of revenue captured by the operators. It is estimated that in 2006 there were approximately three million online poker players worldwide8 and GBGC estimates that approximately $3.1 billion of global gross gaming yield was generated from online poker in 2006, more than double the $1.4 billion estimated to have been generated in 2004. Although smaller than sports betting and casino, for the past few years poker has been one of the online gaming sector's fastest growing segments. Whilst forecasting rates of growth is made more complex by continuous changes in the legislative landscape around the world, it is expected that the historic hyper rates of growth seen in online poker will continue to moderate towards more normalised levels. Excluding the US, GBGC estimates that the online poker segment will grow at a CAGR of over 14% per annum between 2006 and 2010 compared with 162% per annum between 2003 and 2006.

Success in online poker

Whilst the high rates of growth in poker over recent years have attracted a number of online poker operators, the Group believes that success depends upon a number of important features:

• Player liquidity - players want to be able to find a table offering the game and stakes they want, with plenty of other players to make it interesting. Player liquidity is therefore an important factor in attracting and retaining customers. It also means that the larger sites can host a greater variety of tournaments and can offer larger cash prizes. The Group's decision to stop taking deposits and real money wagers from US players on 13 October 2006 resulted in a material reduction in player liquidity and the subsequent loss of a number of non-US players that migrated to sites that continued to accept players from the US and therefore had greater player liquidity. However, since then, PartyPoker has continued to increase the number of players playing on its site thereby increasing its appeal;
• Marketing expertise - online poker is a global business and is highly competitive. Historically, television advertising has proved to be one of the most effective routes for attracting new players. However, restrictions on television advertising for online gaming in certain territories require operators to be both creative in developing other advertising channels as well as speculative by investing in new, alternative and innovative marketing strategies;
• Quality of product - maintaining a fresh and constantly updated customer offer and being able to add new features to existing games is vital in order to keep pace with changing consumer tastes and to stay ahead of the competition;
• Payment processing expertise - offering a broad variety of pay-in and withdrawal mechanisms, that are easy to use, as well as being safe and secure, is also key. Winning and retaining the trust of the consumer can only be achieved by executing payment transactions quickly and safely; and
• Excellent customer service - looking after the customer is a high priority and simply providing a product online is not enough. Today's consumers expect to be able to speak to someone at a personal level to address issues that they may have with the service offered, as well as to help them complete their transactions online. The international nature of the online gaming market means that being able to offer help in multiple languages is becoming increasingly important.

Unless otherwise stated, figures on this page are supplied by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants.