Party Poker Removes High Stakes Games from Portfolio
Party Poker, in a bid to increase its revenue, has removed all high-stakes ring games from its portfolio of games. Recently, Bwin.party Digital Entertainment Plc, the parent company of Party Poker, issued a trade update, in which it blames PokerStars Zoom Poker for its decline in online poker revenue.
The update, which was released on July 10, states that the launch of Zoom Poker increased pressure in the online poker market by snatching away a major portion of the online poker gaming market. Shortly after Bwin.party released this trade update, Party Poker cancelled all high-stakes NL and PL ring games above $5/$10 and FL ring games above $30/$60.
Party Poker issued a public statement, which conveys the message that it wants to improve the “ecology” of its site and has, therefore, decided to remove these high-stakes ring games in the best interests of its players. The online poker room expressed its opinion that the removal of these high-stakes cash games will create greater action at its low-stakes poker tables.
The online poker community has reacted to this in different ways. Many loyal poker players at Party Poker call it a wise move, while others feel that Party Poker will lose its high-stakes players, causing a further loss of revenue.
Player traffic to Party Poker has reduced considerably from the past one year, and although Party Poker’s merger with Bwin Poker and the integration of the two online poker rooms on Ongame Network, which is expected to take place late this year, is believed to increase its player traffic by 20 percent, player traffic will be still much lower than what it was at the beginning of this year.
Bwin.party hopes to attract a larger volume of player traffic by launching its own variant of high speed poker and exploring the area of mobile apps and social gaming. Party Poker also hopes to launch an online poker room in Nevada early next year, after which it hopes to expand in a big way in the US.
Currently, Bwin.party owns Ongame Network, which occupies the fifth rank in player traffic. Six companies, including the social gaming company Zynga, have so far expressed their interest in acquiring Ongame Network, especially after Shuffle Master gave up the idea of acquiring the network.
According to Bwin.party’s recent trade update, the gambling company is looking forward to raking in huge poker profits in the future now that Delaware has followed in the footsteps of Nevada by regulating its online poker industry. Bwin.party is also greatly encouraged by the fact that a number of US states are weighing the pros and cons of legalizing and regulating online poker in their territories. Simultaneously, the gambling company feels that legalizing the industry at the federal level is the best solution to the online poker problem in the US. Since Bwin.party has already gotten into agreements with tribes and companies in the US, it is looking forward to grabbing a huge share of the US online poker market when the time is ripe.
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