Satisfying the curiosity of poker enthusiasts has been pinpointed by Beasts Of Poker as a key driver in delivering its ‘Online Poker in Real Time’ metrics, which aim to provide crucial insights across a number of data points.

Utilising data from “from various third-party sources such as the latest industry reports, company financial reports and other reliable sources,” the online community, which shares professional poker players secrets & strategies, delivers real-time insights across hands dealt, rakeback generated, accounts opened, content streamed and much more.

Statistics utilised by the firm are based on data reported on a yearly or quarterly basis, with the numbers shown calculated as averages that occur per second. 

With this in mind, CasinoBeats first spoke to Joannes Turunen, editor in chief at Beasts of Poker, to gain a better understanding of the thoughts behind making the ‘Online Poker in Real Time’ data available: “We have seen some of these data points being sought out on poker forums and thought it would be cool to map them out in a visual way that is apparent for everyone from the very first look,” he says.

“Reading industry reports is not that fun, at least for most people, but seeing numbers that can be derived from them in real-time can be. We wanted to satisfy the curiosity of poker enthusiasts on these metrics in a creative way instead of writing just another report.”

Before adding what he believes are the biggest insights presented: “Some of the biggest takeaways from the data have to do with the luck factor in online poker. With so many hands being dealt each second, some people will inevitably experience bad beats and bubbling tournaments with very rare board runouts. 

“A particular question rising from the data would be how big a contribution has Bitcoin’s soaring price made to the popularity of online poker in the last few years, which is a tough one to figure out.”

Attention then turns more specifically to the vertical itself, which, according to numerous individuals, has enjoyed something of a renaissance of late, thanks in part to global ‘stay at home’ mandates.

“…online poker will likely be divided into smaller region-based player pools”

Samuli ‘The Judas’ Sipilä, professional poker player and Beasts of Poker Pro, picks up the mantle, and begins by looking into what the last year has meant for poker: “2020 has been a hard one for many communities around the world and if there’s a silver lining to it all, online poker has seen many new and returning players to enjoy this game. 

“One trend contributing to the renaissance of online poker was the movement of live poker players to online felts. Another big contribution to it comes from the growth of Asian markets and club-based poker games, both of which are likely to be driving the growth of online poker in the near future as well.”

With such a bumper performance in the rear-view mirror, Sipilä continues by addressing what he believes the vertical needs to do in order to keep its place at the table of online entertainment: “Online poker needs to transform into an ever more interactive form to keep its appeal to larger crowds.

“As an example, we can partly explain GGPoker’s phenomenal rise to the top with their great interactive user experience – they’re setting the industry standards in that regard for other operators to follow. Poker at its core is a social game – we think it should be treated as such to appeal to the masses. 

“Another requirement we see necessary for the industry is protecting the health of the poker ecosystem. We expect new game formats and variations to become more and more common to fill this requirement.”

To conclude, Sipilä continued on this same path and, with a number of unexpected developments affecting everyone throughout very recent history, looks at what this year has in store for online poker: “In 2021, it will be interesting to see whether operators manage to create product enticing enough to compete with other forms of entertainment. 

“We saw the WSOP Main Event going underway with a hybrid model of both online and live play this year – these types of hybrid tournaments could become more popular next year. 

“We believe the overall industry will grow due to the Asian market and the gradual liberation of the US markets. However, online poker will likely be divided into smaller region-based player pools due to two factors: regulation and player preferences.”