Playtech Q3 Poker Decline

While Playtech the company overall is actually doing very well, the poker business is the only black mark on an otherwise impeccable Q3 financial report. This seems to be the trend for many online poker sites currently, with only PokerStars and a few others, including PKR, able to report growth and/or improvement in fiscal performance. The poker network for this Israeli-owned brand, is the iPoker Network.

Total Playtech revenues have grown by 30% during the last quarter, however Poker revenues have diminished by a huge 27% at the same time. Current online poker income is €4.1 million which represents only 5% of their income stream.

Recently the iPoker network segregated various games which actually left some of the smaller skins fighting for their lives. Some of these skins joined forces in order to benefit from higher liquidity, but the division split into two liquidity pools - it's fair to say that there wasn't much choice - it was essential if they were to survive. Although the results of this change are not fully fiscally visible as yet, Everest left its own software to join with iPoker’s top tier poker rooms.

Everest’s French player base was a smart acquisition for the company, and it effectively has shot the iPoker Network into third place in the .FR marketplace. This meant a 200% boost to their French market share, and placed them third behind PokerStars and Winamax. French online poker regulations have proven tough for many brands to handle, and prior to the Everest acquisition, iPoker had not gained any traction so to speak of in France.

After the move it was estimated that 90% of Everest players chose to stay with iPoker. It is understood that this brand will work hard to retain this player-base. The re-launch of Full Tilt has also had a negative impact on the Playtech poker network. Q4 results should indicate just how much the re-launch of the popular Full Tilt brand will have on iPoker.