eGaming Review April 2012 | Page 24

D ATA KEY STATISTICS This month, following the launch of eGR and H2’s US online gambling report, The Land of eGaming Opportunity, we focus on February's internet poker data Last month, H2 stated that it expects the index to break to the 4,000 mark in February or March. This was achieved on 10 February and 16 February with 4,020 and 4,004 respectively. We now expect more days above 4,000 in March prior to the usual seasonal retreat in April. ABOUT H2 H2 offers the most comprehensive egaming/land-based data service as well as detailed market reports and bespoke consultancy. In total the subscriber area of H2’s website now includes almost 2m data points with an average of up to 20,000 being published/updated each week. H2’s internet poker data service now extends to 10 international sites and three dot. fr sites. The product provides up to 250 data points for each poker platform covered each day. H2 is a Gerson Lehrman partner ?rm and together with TrustPartners (Italy) is a member of Global iGaming Advisors (GiGA) with Gaming Edge Associates (UK) and Spectrum Gaming Group (US). H2 is regarded as the leading source of data regarding the value and volume of the activity across the global gambling industry. H 2 P O K E R D ATA INTERNET POKER SEES STRONG GROWTH IN PLAYER NUMBERS DURING FEBRUARY Internet poker performed generally strongly in February and, despite the usual headline sequential fall in the absolute value of the market from January, average real money player volumes were up 4.1%. The average real money player numbers reached 104,000 – the ?rst time the 100,000 mark has been crossed since May last year. Historically, sequential average real money players’ growth has been mixed in February: there was a fall of 1.2% in February last year but the numbers were ahead by 2.7% in 2010. Over the past few years, March has usually seen a fall in player volumes of between 1% and 2%, although the additional two days mean that revenues are expected to be ahead by as much as 5%, particularly with the slightly stronger performance in the second half of February. Consequently, it is expected that Q1 2012 will return an internet poker gross win of €778m, which would be an increase of just 0.15% on Q4 2011, but 11.9% less than the pre-Black Friday revenues of Q1 2011. As at the end of February 2012, H2’s Internet Poker Volume Index (H2VI) stood at 3,908, 4.9% ahead of the level at the end of January. This equates to 17.4% behind the level from a year earlier and 33% less than the peak of 5,825 on 3 March 2010. Further details can be found at www.h2gc.com or by emailing [email protected]. AVERAGE REAL MONEY PLAYER NUMBERS FEBRUARY 2012 Ring games and tournaments INTERNET POKER IN DEPTH FEBRUARY GGY (€m) Real money internet poker (including bonuses,ring games and tournaments – including all dot.com and dot.country sites) 2010 FEB 12 104,000 FEB 11 131,800 297 MI L L I O N 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 2011 FEB 10 276 MI L L I O N 2012 140,700 245 MIL LION www.egrmagazine.com 24