Out With The Old, In With The New

2012 proved to be a difficult year for the poker industry. Fragmentation continued in Europe with the ring-fencing of Spanish liquidity and continued resistance to liberalisation in Germany, Belgium, Greece and Denmark.

In the U.S. poker players continued to face discrimination online with next to no legally acceptable way to play one of the country’s national pastimes for real money and thousands were still denied their bankrolls by the Department of Justice which is delaying payments despite having secured a deal with PokerStars that saw players in the rest of the world repaid.

Most online poker sties continued to see revenue fall and fretted about concepts such as player ecology while poker tours and tournaments generally saw stagnation at best and contraction at worst.

The poker media shrank and TV poker almost became a thing of the past, consigned to a kind of halcyon era of sponsored pros and money added tournaments.

One major poker network, Entraction, disappeared and with it one of the first and most successful mid-level buy in tours while another changed hands and set the stage for the possible resurgence of Party Poker when it absorbs bwin players and helps launch Zynga’s real money poker offering.

However there were moments of triumph and positivity amidst the gloom. Greg Merson battled drug demons to conquer all in the World Series of Poker main event and Full Tilt Poker returned.

The European Union indicated a renewed appetite for challenging monopolistic and restrictive online gambling regimes and the world’s biggest prize pool helped the One Drop charity and Antonio Esfandiari’s profile no end.

Networks like Microgaming and iPoker profited from the closure of consolidation in the network sector and PokerStars purchase of Full Tilt saw it hailed as a hero in many quarters and really consolidated its place at the top of the poker tree.

Many companies licked their lips at the opportunity to get into online poker in the U.S. as Nevada neared legalization although it doesn’t take a genius to work out that many will likely be disappointed if the anticipated gold rush turns out to be a fool’s errand.

So what will 2013 bring? Almost certainly consolidation in the industry will continue and, notwithstanding the launch of online poker in Nevada, widespread legalisation in the U.S. will remain elusive.

Former Full Tilt players in the U.S. should also see the return of their bankrolls which are stuck on the site. This could give another boost to live poker there which has been booming since the withdrawal of the big online sites.

The World Series of Poker could also benefit and the new re-entry charity tournament there should see huge numbers come out to support it.

There probably won’t be much change to the legislative landscape in Europe which will trundle on largely as before and the land grab in Spain for market share will, like Italy and France before it, see companies pour huge amounts of money into marketing with a questionable rate of return.

In short there will be no magic elixir for the industry or players who will continue to face ever more skillful opponents as they battle to survive the shark infested waters, both real and virtual, all over the world. Good luck out there. You’re going to need at least a little of it. ♠