Nevada’s Third Poker Site Failing To Stimulate Industry

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Tuesday, March 4th, 2014 | Written by Lucy Brown

At the end of February, South Point Casino launched RealGaming.com in Las Vegas, in so doing becoming the third regulated website to offer online poker in Nevada. However, early indications show the online poker platform has so far failed to excite the state’s nascent internet poker market.

RealGaming poker site’s delayed launch

Back in October 2011, SouthPointPoker.com was actually the first casino-based free-play online poker site to launch in Nevada, and in August, 2012, South Point Poker LLC became the first company to receive a license to offer intrastate online poker in the state. At the time South Point chief executive Michael Gaughan had high hopes of becoming the first legal online poker site to operate in the USA, and as Gaughan had stated earlier that year, “I may not be the biggest or the best, but hopefully I’ll have a head start by two or three months.”

However, it wasn’t until nearly 18 months later that the group officially launched in the Silver State, with Caesars-owned WSOP.com, and the Fertitta-run Ultimate Poker already having taken advantage of the legalized online poker landscape over the past few months. In spite of not making the most of its initial advantage, however, Real Gaming’s Co-Founder, Lawrence Vaughan, doesn’t seem too bothered about lagging behind his competitors, especially as he believes the three sites currently operating will likely now form the backbone of the industry for quite some time to come. As Vaughan, explains:

“The timing, for us, doesn’t matter too much. It’s still the early days of online poker in Nevada. There are still many people being educated..I don’t see the total number of sites in Nevada growing much from here. It’s not inexpensive to launch a site and there’s not a lot of money to be made here with a traditional business process. I view this as the beginning of an industry.”

Early complaints concerning glitches and poor software

Although Real Gaming is currently in its soft launch phase, the sites much-delayed launch appears to be a major disappointment on every level and according to online poker tracking site PokerScout, during Nevada’s gambling prime time the site’s virtual tables remain almost completely empty. Even more worryingly, despite the two years taken to develop and test its product, reactions to Real Gaming’s software have so far fallen somewhere between substandard and unplayable. As a scathing article on Online Poker Report, states:

“As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and the impression left by Real Gaming may have not just damaged but may have utterly destroyed the company’s chances of becoming a viable online poker option in Nevada.”

This could signal yet another major opportunity missed for RealGaming.com as since launching in September, 2013, WSOP.com has steadily been acquiring players from Ultimate Poker. Consequently, Real Gaming also had a great chance to attract some of Ultimate Poker’s defecting customers, but that is now difficult to imagine as at present the site’s software is vastly inferior compared to Ultimate Poker. Furthermore, whereas way back in April, 2013, Ultimate Poker made a strategic decision to launch its unfinished product early in order to become a pioneer in the fledgling industry, Real Gaming didn’t have any such considerations to weigh.

Finally, RealGaming.com risks losing further ground if it fails to improve its offering and present a more attractive online poker alternative when Nevada and Delaware eventually implement their landscape interstate partnership agreement.

Nevada online poker averaging around 200 players

Almost a year after having introduced regulated online poker, Nevada has yet to release its internet poker revenue results. Originally, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said it would hold off until at least three sites were up and running, but now with the recent launch of RealGaming.com the industry can expect its first online revenue results for March.

According to Pokerscout, Nevada currently host around 200 players, with Ultimate Poker last week reporting an average of around 70 players on the site over a seven-day period and WSOP.com around 120 players. In spite of payment processing issues, in December, 2013, Nevada unofficially generated around $200,000 in online gambling revenues according to Robert Shore from the Union Gaming Group, while Adam Krejcik of Eilers Research estimated that the state would generate around $18 million in annual revenues. The steps Nevada and Delaware recently took to form an integrated internet poker market, however, should eventually have a profound effect on those figures, especially if other states are tempted to join the compact, and as Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas, explains:

“We’d love to see more products available for players in Nevada as well as stronger marketing that will bring more interest in the online game. The more operators there are invested, the higher the likelihood will be that we can see success in other jurisdictions and even see Nevada coming together with other states.”