INSIGHT
ONLINE POKER IS DEAD –
LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER
While the game has undoubtedly endured a tough period since Black Friday four years ago, there’s
been way too much negativity directed towards online poker of late, writes Robbie Strazynski of
Cardplayerlifestyle.com, who offers up five reasons to be optimistic about online poker in 2015.
AROUND SIX MONTHS ago, in iGB
Affiliate issue 48, I participated in a
roundtable discussion about what to expect
from the online poker industry over the
course of 2015. Here I’d like to revisit the
final question of that discussion, namely:
“Looking ahead, what do you see as the
main opportunities and threats for poker
affiliates in 2015?”
My answer was laced with hopes for
positive developments. In a nutshell, I
posited there was hope for a brighter
future for online poker if interested
parties would work towards investing
commensurate amounts of time, efforts
and monies towards that end.
For over four years now, ever since
Black Friday, the pervasive outlook vis
a vis the online poker industry has been
negative. Indeed, the events of April 15,
2011 will remain etched in our collective
memories forever; it was online poker’s
nadir. Yet, somehow, the industry
survived. With the passage of time,
poker on the whole – and online poker
specifically – has re-entered a growth
phase, albeit a slow, gradual one.
To be sure, it’s not as though online
poker is booming and thriving in 2015 to
the same extent it was prior to that fateful
day. Yet, there are plenty of reasons to be
optimistic about the continued slow and
steady growth of online poker. Here are
five great ones:
1. Poker is white hot on Twitch
For those who haven’t heard, Twitch was
purchased by Amazon for approximately
$1 billion in September 2014. Since
then, the live streaming video platform’s
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iGB Affiliate Issue 51 JUNE/JULY 2015
popularity has skyrocketed. Professional
poker players such as Jason Somerville
s ]