New Territory for Poker Players

Whether it's called hedging their bets, spreading the risk or venturing into new territory, online poker players are certainly taking the bull by the horns. According to intensive studies conducted by Poker Players Research (PPR), the amount of real money bets being wagered by poker players on bets other than poker has more than doubled in the preceding 2 years.

What the studies show
According to Poker Players Research (PPR) courtesy of EGRMagazine, of the 20 million online real money poker players, some 42% of them gamble outside of online poker these days as compared to 2 years ago. That means 8.4 million real money poker players are gaming elsewhere too. The figure is sharply up from 4 million in 2007.

While the United States - owing to the infamous UIGEA - cannot account for much of the growth, Europe especially has shown a dramatic increase in overall gaming by poker players. Countries such as France, Germany and Scandinavia are the strongest performers in this diversified gambling group. The figure in these markets reflects an average of a 55% increase over the 2 year period in question.

Crunching the numbers
Blackjack is a popular choice for poker players averaging around 27% of new bets as opposed to 15% a year ago. Another big winner among poker players is the dramatic increase in sports betting - up to 28% from 14% in 2008.

What these figures reflect is not only diversity in games being played by poker aficionados, it also reveals a major success in the marketing campaigns of online casinos with the quality of their available gaming options.