Home / Poker News September 2013 / Online Poker in Trouble in Europe?
Online Poker in Trouble in Europe?
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Fri, 2013-09-27 11:25
According to a poll conducted by eGaming Review Magazine, online poker may be in trouble in Europe. The fragmentation of the regulated markets and that of the player liquidity has certainly had an adverse effect on the online poker industry in Europe. Countries like France, Spain and Italy have isolated their markets from the rest of Europe and the world, and only allowed a few of the major operators in. What experts saw as a major blow to the industry back then, is now indeed slowly but surely catching up with operators: player numbers are dropping, and without shared liquidity, the trend isn’t likely to be reversed any time soon.
In the said poll, 52% of those asked said that player liquidity should be shared across all European countries, otherwise online poker may simply falter.
Indeed, the situation looks dire.
PokerStars, which has operating licenses in Spain, France as well as well as in Italy, has seen its player numbers drop for 6 straight months in all those markets. French online poker room Barriere Poker has already folded, further underscoring the player liquidity problem in one of the EU’s largest and most populous countries.
Barriere Poker’s move was apparently the result of a report published by ARJEL, the French online gaming regulator, according to which player numbers were dropping across the board in both cash games and tournaments.
Spanish online gaming regulator Direccion General de Ordinacion del Juego, has reportedly began exploring the idea of shared international liquidity, in what may be another sign that things are not going well for Spanish online poker operators either. While indeed, Spain has been looking to share liquidity with Italy, the new director of the national gaming regulator would prefer to see the market borders expanded into Latin America.
According to about 24% of those polled by eGaming Magazine, large countries such as France and Germany did not need shared liquidity.
Play at PokerStars and take advantage of the best player liquidity available on the planet.
