INSIGHT
limiting the abilities of online poker operators
to market prize packages for live events
outside the British Isles. Moreover, as this
article goes to press, the UK Gambling Bill
is working its way through Parliament with
local legislators clawing for every possible bit
of pounds and pence they can feasibly get
their hands on.
Though regulation is, of course, good for
the gambling industry, overzealousness for
the resulting tax profits is simply hazardous
to everyone involved.
Will anything change in 2014?
Thus, as we see, ring fencing of national
markets is sadly a by-product of governmental
greed. Many individual countries are hurting
for tax revenue and they feel like they can
only get it via a closed market of their own
country’s citizens.
For this reason, and the difficulties
involved in international cooperation, I
feel that the growth of online poker will
be hampered in Europe until there’s a
loosening of restrictions in order to unify the
continental player pool.
By the way, the same is of course true of
the emerging US market. Individual state
populations notwithstanding, the full force
of the US player base can only be unleashed
when the nation’s entire poker player pool
is combined, or at the very least bonded
together on an inter-state basis.
So how can poker affiliates
survive the decline?
With ‘Rome crumbling’, so to speak, is
there still a safe haven for online poker
affiliates dependent on European traffic?
Frankly, there don’t seem to be too many
great options at the present time.
One path affiliates could choose would
be to double down with efforts in a specific
country’s market. For this tack to succeed,
you’d have to be really firing on all cylinders,
have excellent networks within said country,
understand what the player base wants, and
do a good job providing them with it. Not
a simple task by any means, and still not
guaranteed to fill your pockets.
Another option would be to look beyond
European horizons towards Latin America,
Asia, and the emerging US market. If
you’re used to marketing online poker
for European players, however, there are
definitely fine-tuning adjustments you’d
have to make to better tailor your sites’
content, keywords, and offers to them.
Betting the farm solely on one of these
alternatives is similarly not necessarily the
wisest bet. The US market lacks liquidity at
the moment as well, a