Will Covid-19 reignite the online poker industry in the long-term?
Skrill CEO Lorenzo Pellegrino urges operators to capitalise on the revival of poker during lockdown by embracing new technology
In many ways, 2020 has been an extremely disappointing year for the gambling industry. With the vast majority of professional sports halting due to lockdown at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and most significant summer headline events such as Euro 2020 and the Olympics being postponed, sports betting operators in particular have seen revenues plummet.
However, this fall hasn’t been experienced across the board. In fact, circumstances created by pandemic restrictions such as increased time spent at home, and a lack of entertainment alternatives including access to physical gambling premises, has meant that some verticals were able to thrive during the most extreme period of social distancing. One of these was online poker.
A mini boom
For operators, pivoting to marketing online poker was a popular and effective strategy.
We noticed a sharp rise in online poker activity as the lockdown sanctions were scaled up. Our seven-day average of number of consumers making deposits with operators to play online poker rose by 50% between the beginning of March and the beginning of April and stayed at this level through the majority of April and May.
But as sports begin to return to some semblance of normality, and casinos reopen to offer players the physical poker experience, will we see the resurgence in online poker last? What does all this mean in the long term?
To an extent, the answer may be tied to the fight against the pandemic and consumers’ attitudes as to when it is appropriate to return to pastimes they turned away from during lockdown. If appetite to return to pre-Covid-19 levels of socialising do not return, this will have a permanent positive impact on all digital entertainment, including online poker.
We know from our latest research that consumers are more reluctant to use cash in the Covid-19 era, and 38% say they will use cash to make payments less frequently, even if Covid-19 is no longer an issue. And while casinos can easily offer players an alternative to cash or conceivably even go completely cashless, removing poker chips and cards and turning the physical experience digital will be a more difficult task.
The evolution of technology also benefits a potential online poker boom in the long term. The continued roll out of 5G, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are just some of the developments that will enable online operators to offer a better, more immersive online poker experience; this will also drive more players to digital operators that get their experience offering right.
Whether we see regional or global spikes in the pandemic, or a return to full Covid-19 lockdown protocols, online poker operators should be focused on capitalising on the resurgence we’ve seen since the beginning of the pandemic. We have already seen online poker capture the attention of new players – sustaining that momentum and building upon it is now the priority.
The role of alternative payment methods in attracting new players
One way operators can attract potential players that are new or returning to online poker is offering more deposit and withdrawal methods. At the beginning of 2020, we asked players about their preferred methods for making deposits to online sports betting accounts; less than half (46%) said that card payment was their preferred method for depositing and this was an even lower percentage (40%) for consumers that made wagers more than once per week.
Security of funds (44%) and ease of use (41%) were the most popular criteria when players were asked how they selected their preferred payment method. Guaranteed privacy of betting activity (21%) was also a popular reason that players selected a particular payment method.
These figures transpose to the online poker industry, where similar concerns apply. For operators to capture new and returning poker players, offering the widest selection of alternative payment methods such as digital wallets or e-cash solutions is essential.
Lorenzo Pellegrino is the CEO of Skrill, NETELLER and Income Access at Paysafe Group. Prior to assuming his current role, Pellegrino was the executive VP for digital development for optimal payments plc from 2012 to 2015.