Poker Tips

Introduction

Not that we need to feel too sorry or concerned about this but news just in reveals that PartyPoker, part of the PartyGaming group, has filed a 29% drop in earnings for the poker website compared to the same period last year. Considering that the whole of the PartyGaming groups profits are down by 6.5%, the fact that the poker arm lost can’t actually be much of a surprise. However, a 29% loss in revenue is big by anyone’s calculations.

Online poker currency

One factor cited for the fall in profits is the international foreign exchange rates. Ever since the start of the international financial down turn, some two years ago, foreign exchange rates have been in turmoil. Whilst this has led to the dollar being strong against other currencies – if you’re buying foreign currency, when it comes to exchanging those foreign currencies into dollars the rates aren’t so good. So, given that online poker rooms are an international trade, poker players from outside of the USA actually end up ‘costing’ the poker websites money when the dollar is strong internationally. Hence for them, the poker stakes are down!

Is online poker less popular now than other online casino games?

Not too sure what sort of poker party this is - but it'd surely get the poker players back for more?

 Something for the online poker analysts to get their heads around is – has online poker become less popular than other online casino games? The question needs to be asked as, for PartyGaming, their online poker takings dropped from nearly $160 million last summer to just under $103 million this summer, whilst their other operations dropped by much less. The problem seems to be that PartyPoker is unable to maintain player’s interest with fewer new sign-ups and a fall in the number of retained players from 2008. Their answer to this a program of expansion introducing new poker websites to more European countries, such as Intralot in Italy, rather than simply re-thinking what are they are offering their current customers on the poker website. Meanwhile PartyGaming shares continue to fall!