Poll results: PokerStars will not dominate online casino market
More than half of respondents to this week's eGR poll believe PokerStars' online casino will struggle to reach the market leading position it enjoys in poker when it launches in Spain and Italy later this year
PokerStars will not dominate the online casino vertical when it rolls out its platform in Spain and Italy later this year, according to the majority of respondents to this week’s eGaming Review poll.
After Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov let slip plans to launch a PokerStars-branded online casino in Spain and Italy by year-end, we asked whether Star’s will dominate the vertical in both markets, as it does in poker.
Despite the chief exec claiming around half of PokerStars customers play online casino on other sites, voters suggested Amaya should not underestimate the challenge of cross-selling from one product to the other.
To that end more than half of respondents (53%) said they thought Stars’ online casino would gain some traction in Spain and Italy, but would not dominate as it does in poker and would be a mid-sized player.
A further 10% of voters said they believed Stars would online be a minor player in online casino in Italy and Spain.
However a third of voters (36%) said they believed Stars would achieve similar success in online casino that it enjoys in poker in Italy and Spain, and will claim the lion’s share of the market.
The launch of a Stars-branded casino in Spain and Italy is widely viewed as being something of a barometer, with a positive performance likely to lead to an extended roll-out into more lucrative markets such as the UK.