Barry Carter reflects on whether other online operators should take the year off from hosting live events like Unibet chose to this week.
This week Unibet announced there would be no live poker stops from them in 2020 and that they were moving all their planned live festivals online. Although the world is taking its first few promising steps out of a global lockdown, the folks at Unibet clearly believe we are a long way off business as usual.
The WSOP announced last week it was planning to hold the World Series of Poker in Autumn and live poker rooms are beginning to make plans to reopen, so the optimists among you might think this was a rash decision by Unibet. Last week I too was hopeful that the Autumn WSOP would take place as planned, but I am now thinking Unibet probably have the more sensible approach.
Live poker will be last to reopen
A lot of western countries are taking their first steps to relax their lockdown procedures and this might fill poker fans with hope. I certainly am relieved and optimistic that some of the small things I have taken for granted like visiting my friends and driving to get a coffee might soon be a reality for me again. But short of a remarkable medical breakthrough, it clearly is a phased reintroduction of the things we love.
Live poker is way down the list I’m afraid to say, nobody can call it an essential service and we still have to face the reality that passing cards and chips to each other at close tables probably make poker one of the surprisingly most dangerous things we could do during a pandemic where disease is spread via the hands.
I do think live poker rooms will be open soon enough, but at a local level. You will be playing your regular €1/€2 game with your old buddies this year, but travelling internationally for a poker tournament? That seems literally at the bottom of the list, or perhaps just above an arm-wrestling tournament.
A time to focus on online
More than anything I just admire the Unibet announcement from a pure business decision perspective. They have removed all the stress the other operators will have, for example, in June about whether their September festival will go ahead or if a second lockdown might happen.
The customers have the same anxieties too. Those who want to travel still have the stress of wondering if they will be allowed to. More significantly in my mind, I am not sure the appetite will be there for players who are mostly online anyway. I know I am going to be a nervous traveller for the rest of the year, and while the games are good online and the wider economy is in trouble it seems a great time to stay home.
Speaking of which, the games are good online and this is a great opportunity for a smaller site like Unibet to grow their audience. Of course the biggest challenge they will face is that they face stiff competition from PokerStars, GGPoker and partypoker to capture these new online poker players. Their live tour was really one of their USPs, the players who play Unibet Open events love them, so they will need to do something special to replicate that online.
The other reason I like their decision is that if they are wrong, who cares? Let’s say magically a breakthrough happens in July that means we can all get back to the live poker tables with confidence. Nobody will judge them for then putting on a live poker event in October, they’ll be happy to do it and their customers will be happy to go.
Live poker will be back in 2020 but think smaller and more local. I doubt the PSPC will happen as planned this year and I if the WSOP does happen it will be a fraction of its former schedule (please God no Seniors Event this year) and almost exclusively US players. There are just too many hurdles for a big International event, not least recreational players too nervous to travel and online games being the best they have been in a decade.
But, if I am wrong, just like Unibet I am sure, I will be over the moon to be wrong.
Do you agree with this decision? Let us know in the comments:
source https://casinonewsblogger.com/was-unibet-right-to-cancel-their-2020-live-events/
No comments:
Post a Comment