While online poker growth has actually sinked below 0% for the first time in the last 10 years world wide, the UK poker market is experiencing one of the highest growth rates out of any country.

Erika Poole, the marketing manage at PKR, explained in a recent news article at 777.com that the game has been growing for the last decade.

The PKR manage stated that while poker used to be seen by many as a men-only activity, it is becoming more and more associated as a popular activity that is linked with celebrities, both females and males, university students, city bankers and housewives.

The UK poker player magazine PokerPlayer has also thrown their ring into the hat, announcing a full UK tour around the UK’s major cities and casinos with £25,000 in prizepools at each event.

Growth in online poker has positively affected many of the UK’s largest bookmakers and poker rooms too.  888 Holdings witnessed impressive growth in their online operations, with the number of poker customers leaping up 74% to more than 200,000 over 2010.  The 888 Holdings Group stated earlier in February that they are still hopeful of being taken over by rival Ladbrokes in 2011.

William Hill’s online poker network similarly saw good growth, especially from the 2nd quarter onwards, after the anniversary of its movement to Playtech’s iPoker network.

The growth of online gambling in 2010 had surprised many during a time of economic downturn and negativity.  However it didn’t seem to make a difference for successful online gambling operators who saw a growth of 12% in the industry over 2009.  The online gambling industry is now valued at well over $30 billion.

Along with the huge growth anticipated in online poker in 2011, a number of jobs have been created for people living in the UK.  A Dublin-based subsidiary of Full Tilt Poker recently confirmed the creation of a further 100 jobs, bringing the number of employees at the Pocket King Ltd operations at Cherrywood Science and Technology Park up to 800.

With mobile gaming and iPhone gambling apps already being developed by many gaming operators including Bwin, Party Poker and Bet365, the gaming sector is set for another surge in growth over the course of 2011 too.

Tags: Online Poker Growth, Party Poker, PKR, UK Online Poker

This entry was posted on Friday, February 25th, 2011 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Poker Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.