Online Gaming Revenues Flat and Dropping

August 28, 2009

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Well I’ve said it before — if you do work in the gaming space this recession has been fairly tough all around. Contrary to popular belief people do not gamble more during tough times, especially online. They might drink more, smoke more and watch more movies but logging on to deposit into an online gaming site is one of the first things to go during such a brutal recession.

Another significant point that needs to be taken into account is the credit crisis and crunch in the United States. Never before in the history of the US has the state of credit been so bad. I’m also not making this stuff up — have a read of this BBC article titled: Credit crunch to downturn to quote:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which oversees the global economy, warns that potential losses from the credit crunch could reach $1 trillion and may be even higher.

It says the effects are spreading from sub-prime mortgage assets to other sectors, such as commercial property, consumer credit, and company debt.

This consumer credit issue has caused some serious ripples in the revenue forcasts for some major online gaming organizations. In particular:

888.com casino revenues fell 23% in H1 2009
PartyGaming reported lossses in their Sportsbook operations and a flat line in Poker and Casino operations.

Being a marketer during a tough time like this makes life extremely difficult but my advice is to stay the course. Do not shift gears quickly and continue building during an economic downturn. If you position yourself properly you will be far ahead when the market begins to recover and you will reap the rewards.

Make a quick, myopic shift change and you will be taking steps backwards and be behind the game when recovery takes place.