According to an interview reported on by the UK Financial Times, CEO of 888 Online Gambling Group, John Anderson, believes that the future of the Internet and land-based poker boom does not look very promising. Reminiscent of Party Gaming’s pessimism about the industry last year, Anderson commented that the 'online poker bubble' will burst and that the rate of user sign-ups cannot be sustained.

"The exponential rates we have seen just can't keep going," said Anderson. "If it keeps going no one in the world will be working. We'll all be playing online poker!"

On the other hand, Anderson’s observation does seem to contradict a statement he made in September of last year regarding 888.com’s poor share results. At that time Anderson told the Times that "Our reliance on the US market is low and Internet penetration is still at a very low level”.

Simon Prodger, marketing director at new-kid-on-the-block PKR.com, disagrees with Anderson, however, and countered by offering his own perspective of the market: “If you're talking about exponential growth there is a very real ceiling to those limits, but there are still very healthy growth rates".

Prodger, believes that the market for poker players remains largely untapped yet and can still be targeted before attempting to attract new players. "At the moment every poker site's idea of product development is to add blackjack, which isn't really developing the product for the user," he said.
Ever optimistic, Prodger added: "Rumors suggest 100 million poker players worldwide, so if that's true you're looking at two per cent of the market playing online in any given month. Poker videogames often sell two to three million units and that's often more people than are playing online."

Posted on: June 2, 2006

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