LAS VEGAS – ENTERTAINMENT – After dealing one billion hands and collecting over 50 million members, poker giant PokerStars have revealed they will expand their offerings beyond the Texas Hold’em tables and into the casino and sportsbook markets.
The features, which are expected to be released completely by 2015, have already begun to be rolled out following the brand’s statement to the press, with blackjack and roulette starting to land on a market-by-market basis with them reaching almost 50% of PokerStars members by the New Year.
PokerStars announces the launch of casino following a successful landing of the games on both the brand’s sister site Full Tilt in January and PokerStars.ES.
The online casino industry has grown rapidly over the last few years, with a growth of almost 80% from 2009 and the brand who launched in 2001 will be using all the experience gained from this year on their new project.
Eric Hollreiser, Head of Corporate Communications with PokerStars said, “We thoroughly researched the opportunity and spent a lot of time talking to players and analysing the behaviour of our customers on PokerStars.ES and Full Tilt.”
What they found was that it had reactivated dormant customers and extended the value of existing customers with around 30% of poker customers playing the casino every month. In fact, 50% of Full Tilt casino players admitted to that being the only casino they play at.
Although they are conscious that not all players will welcome the additions distracting them from the core poker offering, therefore have enabled features that will authorise customers to remove the additional casino games and sportsbook from their view, whilst also enabling members to opt out of marketing and promotions.
Hollreiser added, “We are committed to extending our leadership in poker and will continue to serve the passionate online poker player, while expanding our reach into new audiences and new gaming opportunities.”
The launch of sports betting next year will likely prove a big opportunity, with the market forever growing. The likes of the NFL and soccer see large amounts bet on them alongside special events including the Grand National regularly exceeding £150million when it comes to wagers.
And it makes sense too. The brand have long been associated with sport, dipping into a variety of events from tennis and soccer, most notably making Rafael Nadal and Ronaldo as ambassadors, to snowboarding sponsoring Zoe Gillings, a British Olympian in the GBX Squad.
It’s expected that the PokerStars juggernaut will continue, with the power of the brand behind them it could well be two more strings to add to their exceptional bow.
