Las Vegas Review-Journal – Nevada’s second online poker website launched Thursday. So now the market is over-saturated.
Time will tell if Ultimate Poker, which has been accepting wagers since April 30, and WSOP.com can generate enough players within the confines of Nevada’s borders to co-exist. Meanwhile, at least three other real money websites — 888 Poker, Treasure Island and the South Point — could go live by year’s end.
Nevada’s relatively small customer base isn’t changing. Competition, however, will increase.
We don’t yet know the size of the Nevada market because the Gaming Control Board won’t break out monthly revenues from Internet poker into its own category until at least three websites are active. For now, revenues from online gaming are co-mingled with revenues from live poker games.
In July, the Balance of Clark County’s poker revenues were up 55.4 percent, to $2.1 million. Union Gaming Group Managing Director Bill Lerner said the figures imply that online poker — i.e., Ultimate Poker alone — had roughly $750,000 in gaming revenues during the month.
“We believe this is notable, given that there haven’t been tangible financial results yet of online gaming,” Lerner said.
Eilers Research gaming analyst Adam Krejcik estimated that Nevada could produce online gaming revenues of $45 million annually based on various economic factors, including population and the possible wagering spend per customer.
“If Nevada were also to approve online casino games, we estimate the total market could exceed $100 million,” Krejcik said.
The operators of Ultimate Poker (Station Casinos) and WSOP.com (Caesars Entertainment Corp. and the World Series of Poker) need players from outside of Nevada to grow the market. They want the state to enter into a compact with other states that would increase the player pool and allow online poker to be played across state lines.
“We’re very big supporters of shared liquidity,” Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber said on a conference call prior to launch of WSOP.com. “Nevada will have a healthy business on its own. I think it’s in everybody’s interest at the end of the day that there be compacts among states and that there be shared liquidity.”
