PokerStars Dominance Continues With $217 Million In Q2 of 2018

PokerStars, the biggest online poker website in the world is continuing its dominance over global poker markets.

The online poker giant released a financial report on Monday announcing that it generated $207 million during the second quarter of this year. This figure is 6.9% higher than the $202.9 million rake that was posted in the second quarter of 2017.

Disregarding the effect of year-over-year fluctuations in exchange rates, the growth was up a more conservative 3.9%.

While including the positive impact of exchange rates, poker revenue was up by approximately 10% in the first half of 2018.

PokerStars said that their Stars Rewards loyalty program was a primary driver in the increase as were the fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. Another factor was the introduction of France and Spain’s shared poker liquidity agreement in the first quarter and Portugal’s entering into the liquidity agreement in the second quarter. These numbers are offset by Columbia and Australia who ceased operations in 2017 as well as regulatory changes in Poland which have led to negative operating conditions.

Rake Accounts For 52% of Revenue

PokerStars said that their rake accounted for 52% of the revenues for the quarter and that the company’s other gambling products continue to represent a larger share of the revenue. The Stars Group said that in the second quarter they had 2.02 million “quarterly real-money active uniques” which is a drop of 5.2%. About 1.86 million quarterly real-money active uniques played during the second quarter which is a drop of 7.3% from the second quarter of 2017.

PokerStars defines a quarterly real-money active unique as a player who generates a real-money rake or places a real-money wager during a given quarter.

PokerStars Now Focusing On “High-Value Customers”

The Stars Group explained that one of the reasons that their quarterly real-money active uniques had decreased was that they are focusing on high-value players which are mainly recreational players. The company had been focusing on high-volume professional players in previous years but they recently shifted focus.

Despite the quarterly real-money active uniques being slightly down, the company’s casino revenues were up 11.4% and their sports betting products were up a staggering 78.3%. The Stars Group released the financial data within days of announcing that PokerStars and Mount Airy Casino Resort in Pennsylvania have entered an online gaming partnership.