Online Poker More Popular Than Ever With Younger European Players

wanbet-bc518

May 23, 2008

Everest Poker, together with marketing survey firm JupiterResearch, have discovered that for younger players, poker is more popular than ever before.

The results were especially true for Germany, Sweden, Poland and Hungary, which all saw the ranks of younger online poker players increase substantially over the past year.

For a second consecutive year, Everest and JupiterResearch collaborated on a survey that identifies the demographic and behavioural characteristics of poker players. This year, 10 new markets were added to the survey, which now covers Europe and Asia for a total of 16 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland). Nearly 3,000 poker players in these 16 countries completed the survey online.

Younger online poker players increase in number across Europe since February 2007 --
One of the most notable changes in this year's survey was a shift of the age demographic of European online poker players, with the biggest growth seen in the 18-24 yrs category. Germany, for instance, has shown considerable growth of its number of younger players with 41% of respondents aged between 18 and 24 years compared to 17% in 2007. Similarly, in Sweden the younger age group accounts for 25% of online players which was just 18% in 2007. The newly added countries such as Poland and Hungary have the highest percentages in the 18 to 24 year category which account for 58% and 61% of their players. In Spain however, the percentage of players in the 18-24 age group has remained at 28% since 2007 but the country has seen an increase in the number of 25-34 year olds playing poker online (42%).

Female online poker player ranks grow across Europe since 2007 --
The 2008 survey also identified an increase in the number of female online poker players. This is particularly true for countries such as Spain which now has 44% female players compared to 16% in 2007; Italy with 34% of its players being women (compared to 18% in 2007); and, to a lesser extent Germany, where 35% of poker players are female compared to 32% in 2007. In the Nordic countries where online poker is a much more mature market, there is a larger percentage of female players with Norway dominating at 46% female, Finland 38% and Sweden 37%. Conversely, in eastern European countries where poker is still very much an upward trend, the online poker market is dominated by men with only 28% female online players in Hungary and 27% in Poland.

The fun aspect of poker is what attracts European players most --
There is no distinct geographical split between countries which play the game for fun and those which play for money, although players who come from countries where poker is more developed tend to want to play more to win money. According to the survey, 68% of all European respondents play for fun and 54% highlight the convenience of online play. This is true for Poland where 88% of respondents play for fun, Sweden (77%) and Austria (72%), and in Germany where online players appreciate being able to play at any time (66%), as well as in Switzerland (66%) and Denmark (63%). According to the survey, over one third of Swedish and German online players also find poker challenging and enjoy improving their skill while playing, as do Austrians and Hungarians, who enjoy playing to improve their technique (44% in Austria, 41% in Hungary).

Everest Poker has been at the forefront of the European poker playing community for four years. The poker room implements fully localised software and services, and is a pioneers in the European online poker market. This second JupiterResearch survey serves to further strengthen Everest Poker's unrivalled knowledge of European players. Over 90,000 depositing players played on Everest Poker in March 2008, with as many as 44,000 players connected at the same time.