PokerStars' casino won't trouble 888, CEO says
Brian Mattingley tells eGaming Review that PokerStars' expertise in poker is not a major threat to 888's casino product
888 Holdings chief executive Brian Mattingley said the operator’s casino business will continue to flourish despite the threat of rival PokerStars’ planned expansion into the casino vertical.
Some analysts and have predicted 888 might come under some pressure when PokerStars launches a casino in Italy and Spain before the end of the year with a wider rollout expected if the regional launches are a success.
However, speaking to eGaming Review following 888’s H1 results yesterday, Mattingley said PokerStars’ dominance of the poker market was by no means a guarantee of success in 888’s core casino vertical.
“PokerStars are the best, biggest and most professional poker company in the world “ they are not a casino company,” Mattingley told eGR.
“Why does anybody think that taking a poker business you can apply exactly the same rules to that in a casino? We do not see any migration or cannibalisation of our market,” he added.
Mattingley, who yesterday announced he was to stand down as 888 CEO in May in order to replace the retiring non-executive chairman Richard Kilsby as executive chairman, said PokerStars would struggle to win market share from the established casino brands.
“You have two incredibly large casino operators in the globe “ PartyCasino is huge and so is 888Casino “ so I find it difficult of the Amaya team to believe they can walk into Europe and immediately take market share,” Mattingley said.
“We are confident of our product, we are very confident of our CRM, so I just do not understand why some are fixated on that [PokerStars’ potential threat],” he added.
PokerStars’ casino launch in Italy and Spain later this year is being viewed by many as a test bed ahead of a potential roll-out into more lucrative markets such as the UK.
Amaya CEO David Baazov recently estimated that roughly 50% of PokerStars’ consumers used other sites when accessing non-poker verticals, and with a vast database of poker customers the launch of a casino would offer a compelling cross-sell opportunity for the brand.