M ONT H I N M I NUT ES
[ MONTH IN NUMB3RS ]
97,010
Average number of global poker players in August, 3.2% ahead of the previous month – the ?rst time H2 Gambling Capital’s data has shown a rise in average internet poker playing volumes since Black Friday.
See p22 for more H2 data
11
eGR received emails from the EiG event organisers every 11 minutes... unfortunately in completely the wrong order, and 24 hours after the expo had ended.
Turn to p70 for this month’s Smoking Gun EiG special
£438.5M
Amount in net gaming revenue generated by Bet365 for the ?nancial year ending March 2011, a 37.6% increase on the previous year.
Turn to this year’s eGR Power 50 2011 to see if Bet365 has retained its number-one spot
DEEP DIVE
WILLIAM HILL POKER
Using its Gomez performance network, Compuware monitored the performance of William Hill’s poker site from 25 to 27 September from the Last Mile (real user’s desktops) and the internet backbone. Of the 30 companies included in the benchmark, William Hill finished in 19th position, more than 50% slower than the fastest poker sites. Of note during this test was a significant degradation of the site’s performance on the internet backbone between 11 and 22 September when response times fluctuated to more than 18 seconds in some cases. Further investigation showed that the size of the home page had increased six-fold. While this explains the longer response time, it does not explain the inconsistent page performance. The fact that this occurred across all internet backbone nodes in the test indicates that the problems lie with website, rather than the web infrastructure. On the Last Mile the site’s average response time was poor – 5.5 seconds compared to two seconds for Jennings Bet. For browser performance, William Hill’s poker website works well on the more up-to-date versions of web browsers but there are layout and page failures on previous versions.
Gomez scored the site’s performance 2.8 stars out of ?ve, broken down as follows:
R I G H T T O R E P LY CONTINUED
other products we produce. Some of the biggest companies in egaming including operators, service providers, recruiters and lawyers, have already contacted us asking for multiple licence deals to enable employees in offices around the world to access our products. Q: I have been an avid reader of your print magazine as well as your online site since 2005. Now I am moving on to a new start-up and I doubt we can justify paying. If I had the funds available I would not hesitate to take one up for me at home. I will be very sad to lose such a tool. eGR: We do not want to lose you as an avid reader of the magazine and the site. So far this year we have had close to one million visitors to the site, while the magazine celebrates its 10th anniversary next year. We are, in our opinion and in the opinion of the majority of the industry, the leading industry publication and do not want to lose loyal readers. Q: I don’t see you getting many people subscribing after using the site for free for so long as most of the information is available elsewhere across the net with a bit of digging. eGR: A number of high-pro?le publications and B2C and B2B media brands have gone behind the paywall and proved the model works. Also, a signi?cant amount of our news is recycled by affiliate portals and other news sites and will no longer be available elsewhere for free. Q: You are generating revenue streams elsewhere and because customers like me attend your shows/networking events. Is Pageant Media looking to increase the cost of print advertising once the 'reader reach' increases next year? eGR: eGR Live is a free-to-attend event which provides free content and free networking opportunities to registered delegates. The eGR editorial team is committed to providing the best content possible on a daily basis, and is adopting the model now used by other leading B2C and B2B media brands in their sector to ensure this. Q: Is it possible to sign up for a free trial to the new website, and try before I buy? eGR: Yes. The site is now live and you are able to sign up for a free two-week trial. This will give you full website access, a print and digital version of the latest issue of eGaming Review and the daily snapshot email. You have also the option of extending your trial by another two weeks, but once your trial has expired, you will need to become a paid subscriber to continuing accessing both online and print products.
RANKING
AVAILABILITY ON THE LAST MILE: 24\ 25 RESPONSE TIME ON THE LAST MILE: 10\25 CONSISTENCY ON THE BACKBONE: 2\15 COMPETITIVENESS ON THE BACKBONE: 6 \15 BROWSER SUPPORT: 13\20
OVERALL
55/100
ANDY HORNBY
MD of Coral A high-profile appointment which Coral believes will justify the year spent searching for the right candidate. Hornby joined the board of Asda at 32 and served as CEO of HBOS, but his most recent role was as chief executive of pharmaceutical and beauty group Alliance Boots. According to eGR sources, he allegedly agreed to join the sports betting arm of the firm on the proviso that it would lead to him organising the sale of the business to a private equity firm.
JOHN O’REILLY
Interactive MD of Coral The only one
of the new senior appointments to arrive from within the egaming industry, O’Reilly was hand-picked by Hornby to take the reins of Coral’s interactive division. He took up the role almost exactly a year after leaving Ladbrokes, where his 18 years had seen the industry veteran take up a number of roles including MD of remote gaming and betting.
CARL LEAVER
Group