It might be surprising to think of it, but online poker in the state of Nevada recently celebrated its fourth anniversary. It’s a tremendously different online arena than what was in operation then, however. After four years, there is arguably only one serious online room, WSOP.com, which was the subject of an article from Thomas Moore of the Las Vegas Sun.
WSOP.com’s Bill Rini, the head of online poker, and Seth Palansky, the vice president of corporate communications for Caesars Interactive Entertainment, sat down with Moore to look back at the past four years and what has made WSOP.com successful. Rini cited the “great brand” that comes along with the WSOP name, but also looked at the cross-promotion that the site has done with the “live” WSOP. The past two years, the WSOP calendar has included bracelet events, helping to burnish the reputation of the online version in players’ minds.
In looking to the future, however, both Rini and Palansky are realistic but optimistic. Moore asked about the current (and arguable) downswing in the game of poker and Rini replied, “Things have calmed down. You often have a huge growth, then a contraction…we’re definitely on the contraction side of that.” Rini cited that the lack of other states regulating online poker (currently there are only two, New Jersey and Delaware, other than Nevada) has had and will continue to have an impact on Nevada’s business.
Palansky believes that there is still plenty of growth yet. “Poker globally has never had more players because of the internet,” Palansky tells Moore. “Globally, an estimated 18 million monthly players play free-to-play mobile poker games.”
One of the biggest mysteries about WSOP.com is just how many players are taking part of their offerings. Under Nevada regulation, once three online rooms were operational revenue reporting was required. Due to the contraction of the industry over the past three years, there hasn’t been any reporting of the revenues earned by online poker (September 2014 was the last official report, when the three online poker rooms in Nevada had $693,000 in gross revenues). Rini and Palansky were quite open, though, as to the average numbers coming through the turnstiles at WSOP.com
Palansky stated that “the market is unique (with) more poker rooms and tables than in any other state or city in the world,” while Rini presented some numbers for consideration. Accounts that have been opened on WSOP.com total between 35,000 and 38,000, Rini said, while there are 1200-1500 active visitors each month. “If you go online at any given time, you’ll see 100 to 200 players,” Rini comments, but neither he nor Palansky get into the revenues derived from online poker in Nevada.
As to the future for WSOP.com, both Rini and Palansky say compacting is critical to their growth. Compacting – joining with other states and sharing player pools – “allows the liquidity to flow among the states and allows the customers to play each other,” Rini said. Larger prize pools would also be more attractive as it would bring in more players.
When Nevada passed online poker regulations in 2013 (and only online poker; New Jersey and Delaware have fully licensed online casino gaming AND poker), WSOP.com wasn’t the first fish into the pond. That honor went to Ultimate Gaming (owned by Station Casinos) who, in April 2013, opened the first legalized online poker room in the States of America. In September 2013, WSOP.com (Caesars) and Real Gaming (South Point) opened for business and the outlook for the Nevada online gaming industry was bright.
Although the three rooms would bring in slightly more than $11 million over the next year, the competition for such a limited player pool was taking its toll. Ultimate Gaming’s Ultimate Poker folded in September 2014 (closing operations in both Nevada and New Jersey) and Real Gaming’s influence has been minimal in the Silver State’s online poker industry. That left WSOP.com to become THE dominant online poker force in Nevada, a position it has happily stepped up to take.
What the future holds for WSOP.com – and perhaps any other competitors for the company – is completely unknown. With the constantly shifting sands of opinions across the country (and in state legislatures) regarding the regulation of online gaming and poker, it still may be some time before there’s another state for WSOP.com to compact with. Furthermore, with the Nevada operations only encompassing online poker (most states are looking at total casino gaming), it is making for difficult negotiations. For now, WSOP.com is the major player in Nevada’s online poker industry and there won’t be any challengers to the throne anytime soon.
