SBC Barcelona: How poker's future is intertwined with recreational players

Casino Guru News had the opportunity to attend "The evolution of Poker" panel hosted by SBC Summit Barcelona on Wednesday and see what the future of the industry holds. Moderated by SBC Americas editor Jessica Welman, the panel featured three heavyweights from the industry, including Ivonne Montealegre, the founder of Malta Poker Festival and Fiebre de Casino, Peter Jesko, Casino Guru’s own strategic consultant, and Erik Shakhbazian, editor at Pokerstyle Events.

The trio of industry leaders offered their insight into how recent events have reshaped the poker status quo and what this entailed for the future. Montealegre was confident that the pandemic has benefited to the resurgence of the game. "The pandemic has made a resurgence in poker. I see a lot of potentials for poker to grow in the future," she said.

Shakhbaziannoted that the increase in interest was not just a blip on the radar tied to the pandemic, but was rather a lasting development, which has seen a "huge rise in poker players" with lots of new players coming. "We see a lot of young people dominating the game, and these are all new players," he shared optimistically.

Jesko drew attention to the fact that poker players are a different type of crowd, different than, say, casino players. He said that poker players tend to value the ability to make decisions that are based on skill and understanding, and noted that despite the uptick in player numbers, poker still remains a significant challenge to what he described as "casual players."

Shakhbazian agreed with Jesko and said that efforts should be focused on how to make the game more appealing to recreational players indeed. He admitted that professional players have shunned the issue, but he noted that even professionals play against recreational players (the fish), and they should work to advance the game as a whole.

Jesko said that despite this "elitist culture," there were no sharks left and that the big moneymakers were now challenged by a resurgent crowd of players. Poker has got big and with it, the count of competent and highly skilled players has increased as well. In a way, poker has reached its "lowest point," and what should follow from this point on is growth.

The trio also discussed some of the challenges that the industry faces on a daily, such as cheating and bad actors. Thankfully, though, these issues will be met with a stern technological response as new solutions become available to counteract both cheaters and bad websites.

Naturally, the trio also spoke about botting, one of the most serious problems that even leading brands in the sector are still fighting round-the-clock to address. Montealegre noted that complacency on the issue was not a way to resolve it.

"What’s even more ridiculous, I know about at least one very big poker operator that has a such poor backend that it doesn’t even offer hand history. How is that possible in today’s world," she said firmly.

Jesko agreed and said that the poker community is one of the smartest ones out there, and operators would do well to sit down, slow down and listen to what players have to say. Operators should also learn what to listen for – as some player complaints, he admitted, were not as relevant as others.

Shakhbazian then joined again and said that there was also a misunderstanding that online casinos do not need to try and capitalize on poker – this is once again a mistake, he insisted. "Poker is one of the best marketing tools to bring new players to casinos and it has proven to be effective time and time again, and all casinos need to understand that," he added.

The trio also noted that poker is now going to start making inroads into new markets. Jesko explained that poker is moving quickly in Asia, where the game has a lot of potential. Montealegre added that the Latin American market is another interesting market to explore.

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