888 Online Gambling Group Offers Dampening Poker Note

888 Online Gambling Group CEO, John Anderson, while being interviewed by the UK Financial Times last week, made a sobering if logical statement that was broadly and negatively reported by the world media.

Anderson observed, while talking in general about the ongoing land poker and Internet boom, that the 'online poker bubble' could very much be expected to explode and in addition, that the rate of user sign-ups could not possibly be sustained.

Anderson is quoted as saying that the exponential rates that the industry has been witnessing cannot possibly be sustained. He said that if the rate were to continue, then eventually there would be no one working and everyone would be playing poker online.
However, following 888.com's poor share results Anderson's latest statement is in contradiction with what back in September 2005, he told The Times.

At the same time he stated that the company’s reliance on the US market is low and that Internet penetration is still at the present time at a very low level.

It cannot be said that all agree with Anderson's most recent depressing assessment. " Simon Prodger, PKR.com's marketing director says that if the subject is exponential growth there is clearly a very genuine ceiling to those limits. But, he went on to say that there are still very healthy growth rates. PKR.com is a more recent arrival on the poker scene.

Prodger is reported as saying that at the moment it is the idea of every poker site as regards product development, to add blackjack. He says that he feels that this isn't really a means for developing the product for the user. He believes that among offline poker players around the world, a huge untapped market exists, before online sites might even try to attract new players.

According to the rather upbeat Mr.Prodger, rumors are suggesting that there are as many as 100 million poker players who are playing worldwide. Prodger calculates that if that is true, then there are about two per cent of the market playing on-line during any given month. He goes on to say that since Poker videogames can often report selling two to three million units that means that there are often more people than are playing online.

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