While the online poker industry continues to flourish in most parts of the world, the online poker market in Europe is not doing so well. Recent stats show that there has been a gradual decline in both player participation and gross revenue and there is not much hope of that changing in the near future.
Reports show that there has been a considerable decline in online poker activity in countries like Spain, France and Italy. During the early part of 2014, a summit was held in Rome where the online poker market in Europe was discussed.
There was a proposal raised to institute a deal that guaranteed liquidity sharing between regulated EU markets. However that proposal was declined and since then none of these countries have come up with a clear cut solution on how to address the decline of online poker.
Spain has seen one of the biggest declines in online poker as it is estimated by eGaming Review to be losing close to 40% of its players to offshore sites that are unlicensed. However, those that run the online poker industry in Spain are not paying a lot of attention to these stats. If they did, then their immediate plan would be to make the online poker market in Spain more attractive so that players do not cross over to these unlicensed websites and gambling companies will promote tournaments and events that were a lot more appealing.
Spain is looking to gain more revenue from its online gambling activities not by increasing the quality of online poker but instead by introducing a number of other online gambling games such as online slots and online betting. It remains to be seen if this strategy will change the online gambling trend in Spain and bring in more revenue.
The gambling industry as a whole in Spain is a concern because online casinos as well as brick and mortar casinos have witnessed a decline in their revenues. The numbers reveal that Spain’s online gambling industry has shrunk 10% (MoM) to €55.4 million for the three months ending June 2013, while the country’s brick and mortar casinos have also dropped from €2.5 billion in 2007 to just €1.5 billion in 2012.
Albert Agustinoy Guilayn from DLA Piper Spain was positive that the markets will change shortly. He spoke about the earlier issues of shared player liquidity and said that there is a strong possibility of these issues being raised on again by various European countries.
Guilayn said that he believed that shared liquidity will not happen during 2014 but there is a strong possibility of it being approved and implemented during 2015.
