Online Poker

1. Introduction

Today, millions of people around the world play online and offline poker. Especially online poker has become an increasingly popular form of gambling. An estimated 1,700 gambling websites have emerged in the world wide web.

Due to the high number of poker platform providers, the online poker industry has become an extensively competitive arena. Established companies have to make major efforts in order to maintain their customer base and to acquire new clients. Offline poker players constitute an increasingly interesting target group for online poker providers. “If someone plays offline, why shouldn’t she or he play online” is the basic suggestion. However, there are various reasons why offline poker players are reluctant to play online for money. Therefore, it is crucial for every company to gain insights into the reasons which keep potential customers from playing online in order to improve their offer and, thereby, attract new customers.

1.1. Problem Statement

Due to the fact that many countries are taking a variety of approaches to regulate internet gambling, online gambling providers are facing a difficult time. Additionally, the phenomena of the increasing number of dubious providers trying to enter the booming market segment, is starting to cast a poor light on the whole industry. This leads to uncertainty and apprehension among the consumers of these particular internet services. These factors, combined with the above-mentioned increased competitiveness within the online poker industry, are the major challenges PartyGaming faces. In order to stay competitive, the online poker platforms should try to attract a maximum number of offline poker players to use their poker websites. Therefore, insights into the reasons that keep offline players from gambling online are needed in order to attract them to the online poker platform. Especially in the area of online poker for money, a high profit potential exists: While gambling for play money only creates revenues through advertising on the page, PartyGaming can earn significantly more on table fees when real money is involved.

1.2. Research Objectives

The purpose of our current study is to explore which reasons influence the decision to play online poker for money. The reasons why face-to-face poker players prefer real poker to the online version will be scrutinized and explained in order to provide deeper insights to the behavior of potential customers. It is believed that there are significant differences between online and face-to-face poker and that is why this research will be valuable, especially for internet poker platforms. As this topic has not been covered before, the results of this study could provide an interesting starting point for PartyGaming’s initiatives to attract more offline players to play online.

2. Sample Statistics

2.1. Target Population

Due to the fact that we are trying to detect our respondents’ intention to play online poker, the respondents do not have to fulfill any further screening criteria besides the age factor and the fact that they are playing face-to-face poker for money.

104 people were asked in total, whereof 69 respondents (66,3%) were male and 35 respondents (33,7%) were female. The target population to be studied consists of people between 18 and 35 years old, who are known to play face-to-face poker for money. We decided to concentrate on this particular age-group, as we believe that especially face-to-face poker players in this group could present potential new customers for our client, PartyGambling, due to their IT proficiency. Our sample consists of respondents which are currently living in Austria.

Due to the fact that the total population of face-to-face poker players cannot be determined, a non-probability judgmental sampling technique will be used to draw the needed sample for this project. Since the study focuses on conducting exploratory research and does not aim at representativeness, this sampling method is appropriate under the given research design. The sample size is planned to be 150 respondents in order to accumulate sufficient data for the subsequent analysis.

3. Descriptives

3.1. Perceived Security of Online Poker Platforms

In our qualitative research, we encountered various concerns regarding the security of online poker platforms. Especially, respondents were worrying about the influence that the platform providers have on the results of the game and unfair practices used by opponents. Moreover, the issue of data security was important to the respondents. Some of them, for example, believed that personal data submitted to online poker platform providers might be transferred to third parties.

Are there any differences in the perceived level of security among men and women? As one can see below, the distance between the second and third quartile is larger in the right boxplot (for women). This indicates that answers of female respondents were more scattered than those of men.

The arithmetic average for all responses by men was slightly higher than the one for all responses by women. Consequently, men felt on average more secure on online poker platforms than women.

Are you male or female? mean N standard deviation

male 29,4638 69 10,03462

female 26,2857 35 10,68691

Insgesamt 28,3942 104 10,31769

3.2. Social Aspect of Poker

Many respondents in the qualitative research process indicated that one of the most important things in playing poker is the “social aspect”, i.e. meeting friends, getting to know new people and having fun. These factors were summarized in this construct. Therefore, a high importance of the Social Aspect of Poker means that the respondent

 likes to play poker because it is a group activity which offers an opportunity to spend time with friends,

 does not think that winning money is the only motivation to play poker,

 prefers playing poker in a group of people to playing online poker alone and

 appreciates