Q&A: Marco Trucco, PokerStars Italy country manager
Former Eurobet head of gaming Marco Trucco tells eGaming Review how PokerStars aims to reinvigorate poker
With online poker revenues falling across Europe, there’s no doubt market leader PokerStars has a tough task trying to return the industry to growth.
One of the countries to have felt the decline in poker more than most is Italy and PokerStars recently appointed Eurobet gaming director Marco Trucco to the position of Italy country manager to help revitalise the flagging vertical.
Trucco speaks to eGaming Review about the innovation required to improve poker’s fortunes both in Italy and across Europe, and looks at the potential of the operators soon-to-be launched Italy-facing casino.
eGaming Review (eGR): You recently left Eurobet to take on the role of country manager at PokerStars. What was it about the new position that enticed you into making the switch?
Marcu Trucco (MT): PokerStars.it is the largest “dot country” poker room in the world and close to the top five globally. It’s a fantastic and challenging position within the gaming industry, because it really requires big bold ideas to grow further. And of course, because I love poker.
eGR: PokerStars is dominating the market in Italy – how do you improve on a market leading position?
MT: We don’t aim to get a bigger slice of a smaller pie, our goal is to reignite the poker business in Italy as a whole and to restore the foundations for a long term sustainable growth. I think the key is innovation.
We need to dream of poker as the online game of the 21st century, open to everyone. The learning curve is too steep for most people. In Italy we have engaged almost everyone who could be naturally attracted to a complex, challenging and time-consuming skill game.
eGR: The trend has been for a declining poker market in Italy and across Europe, how do you return the market to growth?
MT: We need to break into new territory and approach those who like a simpler, faster and fun game. It can be done through new product formats, such as Spin and Go, which is an excellent entry-level game, and mainstream communication.
If you manage a ski resort that every year gets less snow, you can either decide to keep open only the black slopes high on the mountain for the experts, or you can invest in expensive snow cannons to cover all the greens and blues for families and ski schools. If you don’t do that, you can’t just blame the fact that ski is not “cool” or “hip” anymore.
eGR: What role do you see cross-border liquidity sharing having on the future of poker? Are you keen for regulators to come to an agreement on this?
MT: I’m sure all regulators know that we would be delighted and ready to work on it any minute. But unfortunately it’s not in our hands. The regulators themselves can only pave the way, suggest a technical framework, but they can’t make it happen alone.
eGR: As Italy country manager, you will soon be responsible for PokerStar’s Italy-facing casino. How would you summarise the state of Italy’s online casino market?
MT: Direct acquisition is very challenging and expensive, so casino it’s largely an upsell proposition. Most VIP and high rollers still play on .com sites and they don’t want their deposits and withdrawals to be scrutinized.
The content range is still limited compared to the open market because of the game certification and wallet integration issues, so many games hit the Italian sites as much as 12 months after the international launch and most small developers can’t justify the localization costs.
This is especially crucial with mobile. On the flip side, competition on bonus, promotions and CRM is not as fierce as in the non-regulated arena. I think PokerStars is in a very good position to attract a fair share of this market.
eGR: What are your main focuses for the rest of the year and the following 12 months?
MT: The main goals are to make the most of our marketing budget, stepping up creativity to reach a wider audience and engage new players, to launch new verticals without negative effects on the poker business and run the Italian operations so smoothly that Italy can serve as a true innovation lab for the whole company.