FEATURE THINK AGAIN
NEED
FO
R
S PEE D
NEED FOR SPEED
of Full Tilt”, while PokerStars’ roster of sportsmen and women, already including tennis star Boris Becker, just last month welcomed a new member in one of the sport’s most recognisable ?gures, Rafael Nadal. Jamie Nevin, founder of Power Affiliate PokerVIP.com, believes both fast-paced poker and mobile will continue to lead the way in terms of future innovation. “Rush poker probably will be the future for mobile, but so many people have jumped on it now and there’s the question of ‘is there more to come?’” he explains. “I’d say we’ve seen some business innovation from Relax Gaming [which introduced Fast Poker earlier this year] in the sense that they began to offer their product to operators who already have skins on various networks – that is innovation and that is seeing something a bit further.” Yet Nevin still bemoans a lack of innovation in poker, suggesting this can in part be attributed to the network model. “The model itself isn’t conducive to marketing poker altogether – if I’m [for example] Paddy Power, I’m never going to do a TV advert for poker because I know 90% of the ?sh I put in will go into feeding my competitors on the network who are cannibalising players from me,” he says. He also suggests: “The rake model isn’t conducive to innovation as it’s rewarding the wrong kind of innovation. It’s getting better but there’s no real reward for being innovative – the only real reward is for bringing in high rankers in the main. For real innovation to come out the emphasis has to be taken [away from simply] winning players.” Patrik Selin, the outgoing CEO of the Bodog Poker Network, believes there is another factor coming into play
SPOTL I G HT:
FAST POKER: THE NEED FOR SPEED
I
nnovation has by no means been absent from poker, although with the vertical seen by many as having approached a plateau, it could be argued that more recent advances have simply been less dramatic than in the past. Full Tilt Poker’s fast-paced “Rush Poker” product was viewed as a game-changer upon its introduction in January 2010, and recent re?nements – not simply copycat efforts – from other operators and networks have been innovative in their own right. PokerStars Zoom and the InstaDeal network have both brought fast-fold poker offerings into the mobile realm in a manner Full Tilt was yet to approach when it met its demise, with a basic Androidready version the only movement to that end from the former Alderney licensee. Whether technological developments such as the progress of Apple’s iPad might have rendered this a mere extension of Full Tilt’s move into mobile is an argument that commentators would be right to raise, but one which struggles to hold water. Elsewhere, some of the larger operators have made great strides in terms of sponsorship, increasing their brand visibility as more and more high-pro?le ?gures from sports and entertainment have begun to represent them in branded live tours. Full Tilt has been a notable exponent with the likes of actor Don Cheadle taking the role of a “friend
10
I NNOVATIONS
IN THE LAST 10 YEARS
E In-play E Mobile sportsbook E Rush Poker E Live streaming E Apps E Media partnerships E Smartphones E Single wallet E Virtual credits E Pre-paid vouchers
www.egrmagazine.com
37