Friday, October 06, 2006

Backgammon

Backgammon is receiving a lot of interest at the moment because many people in egaming don’t know about it and are looking for the next sector to hype after poker.

It has a good chance of doing well: it is well-known all over the world and large numbers of people know how to play it or have a board in their house. It’s a very cultural game with an ancient history, visually it is interesting to look at and it is exciting to watch on TV.

Monthly player value is similar to casinos, which proves that backgammon players play often, with professionals spending between six and eight hours a day playing. It is hard to say with accuracy which markets will grow in a major way, but Scandinavia is doing very well and obviously Greece and Turkey are expected to do well, while Germany, Italy and Israel are also taking up backgammon in a substantial way.

More research needs to be done on the market and how well cross-selling the product can work, part of the problem at the moment is that there are no conclusive figures for the market and people tend to overestimate its potential. It is mainly a play-for-fun market at the moment and it is difficult to make serious money out of it right now. But as it grows and gathers momentum real money players will come in and grow the sector, but that will probably take up to three years.

| Backgammon