Poker Revenue

By Wagercomms

Insight to Brand and Network revenue

Operators with one or several successfully brands B2C is looking to enhance business and profits through B2B, and while many are facing greater challenges in building a B2B division and network, as operations model is licensed from software suppliers and part of an existing network, other brands are independent and hence operates on ownership and control of system and thereby holds a stronger position to explore business to business in order to acquire more play and go network.

Analysing brand and network revenue this article do however not intend to advice, evaluate or make any other representation as to preferred direction, as there are several and thereto crucial factors that needs to be encountered for on a case by case basis, it do however present a brief insight to potential operations revenue, on various player levels and rounds per hour versus average rake.

Operations

The main essence of online poker is to build a solid poker community in order to maintain as many players and tables running at any given time, making sure that the rake is taken continuously in order to support operations, ongoing business and build revenue, and this is what online poker is all about.

Average Rake $1

Analysing facts, average rake is based on a variety of tables spreads and pot sizes, and reaching an average rake of 1, poker rooms require a variety of tables and limits, and the below tables represents an example of the most commonly played table limits, and represents a standard spread in reaching an average rake of 1 per round.

Table Limit   Pot Spread   Avg. Pot   Min Rake   Max Rake   Avg. Rake

0.50/1            4-6                  5                0.25           1                   0.25 

1/2                  8-12                 10              0.25            1                   0.25 

2/4                 20-25              20              1                3                   1 

3/6                 25-30              25              1                3                   1 

5/10                30-75              65              1                3                  2 

10/20              75-140            100             1                3                  2 

15/30              140-150           140             1                3                  3 

20/40             150-230          170             1                3                  3

Naturally there are brands and network that don't reach an average rake of $1, one being that a higher focus on low stake tables reduces average rake, while also rakeback and network model as well as royalties having an overall impact onto average rake.

10 million rounds

Establishing an average rake of $1, revenue will be driven by the number of rounds played by the hour, i.e. number of rounds versus time versus rake are the denominators for brands and network revenue.

Table Limit   Tables   %        Rake/round   Rounds        Poker rake 

0.50/1            4             17        0.25                 1 700 000          425 000

1/2                  5            22.5    0.25                 2 250 000         562 500

2/4                 4            17        1                        1 700 000        1 700 000

3/6                 4            17        1                        1 700 000        1 700 000

5/10                3            13       2                       1 300 000       2 600 000

10/20              1            4.5      2                         450 000          900 000

15/30              1            4.5      3                         450 000        1 350 000

20/40             1            4.5      3                         450 000        1 350 000

Total            23           100                             10 000 000      10 587 500

Analysing the chart of 10 million rounds and a poker rake of $10 587 500, one require an estimated 27 000 rounds per 24 hours, equivalent to about 1100 rounds per hour, or 19 rounds per minute, based on a 360 day period. Reaching the estimated numbers one require about 200-400 players online playing at any given time, per the given table limits, and average rake. 

25 million rounds

While looking and analysing numbers lets target the second goal of operations, 25 million rounds during 360 days.

Table Limit   Tables   %        Rake/round   Rounds         Poker rake 

0.50/1            12            15        0.25                 3 750 000          937 500

1/2                  16           21         0.25                 5 250 000        1 312 500

2/4                 10           15         1                       3 750 000       3 750 000

3/6                 8            15         1                       3 750 000       3 750 000

5/10                12           15        2                       3 750 000       7 500 000

10/20              8            8.5      2                       2 125 000        4 250 000

15/30              4            4         3                       1 000 000        3 000 000

20/40             6            6.5      3                       1 625 000        4 875 000

Total             23            100                            25 000 000     29 375 000

Analysing 25 million rounds and a poker rake of $29 375 000, one require an estimated 70 000 rounds per 24 hours, equivalent to about 2900 rounds per hour, or 48 rounds per minute, based on a 360 day period. Reaching the estimated numbers one require about 500-1000 players online playing at any given time, per the given table limits, and average rake.

50 million rounds

Increasing marketing targets to high levels let's take a look at the numbers on 50 million rounds.

Table Limit   Tables   %        Rake/round   Rounds            Poker rake 

0.50/1            25           15        0.25                  7 500 000       1 875 000

1/2                  18            21        0.25                10 500 000       2 625 000

2/4                 22           15        1                        7 500 000       7 500 000

3/6                 18            15        1                        7 500 000       7 500 000

5/10                14            15       2                        7 500 000     15 000 000

10/20              10            8.5     2                       4 250 000       8 500 000

15/30              8             4        3                        2 000 000      6 000 000

20/40             6             6.5     3                        3 250 000      9 750 000

Total             23             100                            50 000 000    58 750 000

Hence with 50 million rounds there is a potential poker rake of $58 750 000, which requires an estimated 140 000 rounds per 24 hours, equivalent to about 5800 rounds per hour, or 96 rounds per minute, based on a 360 day period. Reaching the estimated numbers one require about 1000-2000 players online playing at any given time, per the given table limits, and average rake.

Operational Target

Whether a reality or not there is today highly successful brands online and while corporate revenue differs greatly from the numbers presented, the numbers are from analysing actual operational online brand(s), however exclusive of operational costs; bandwidth, hardware, software development, management, staff, support, bonuses, rakeback, promotions and more. Facts remain however, operational poker can be highly successful and one need to go no further than looking at the numbers of some of today's public gaming companies.

Operational rake over a three year period, accordingly to the above charts, holds the potential to reach close to a $100 million ($98 712 500).

Year                             1                            2                           3

Rounds/Year             10 million            25 million            50 million

Rake/Year                  10 587 500         29 375 000          58 750 000

Rounds/minute        19                         48                          96

Understanding target, one need to understand players, what is required and what can be expected, hence let's take a look at player patterns versus poker time.

Player Targets

With operational target set on a high level more interesting is analysing player levels required by the hour and what potential revenues brands and network can rake in.

800 players

                                  0.50/1     1/2     2/4     3/6     5/10     High lim.  Total 

No. tables                1              1          1          1           1          2                7 

Players/table         8             5         6         6          8         8               49 

Time/player           2h           2h       1h       2h        1h        2h             10h/1h

Players/hour          8             5         6         6          8         16              49

Players/24h           96           60       144     72         192     192            756 

Rounds/hour *      40           40       40      40        40       80             360

Rounds/minute    0.66        0.66    0.66   0.66     0.66    1.33           4.6 

Rounds/24h          960         960     960    960      960    1920      6 720

Rounds/360d                                                                              2 419 200 

Rake/24h               240          240     960    960      960    1920      5280

Avg. rake                0.25         0.25     1          1           1          1  

Attracting 800 (756) players per 24 hours, or 49 players by the hour, holds the potential to run seven active tables continuously and rake in about $5 000 (5 280) per 24 hours.

1100 players

                                 0.50/1     1/2      2/4     3/6     5/10     High lim.  Total 

No. tables               2              1          2         2          1          2                  10 

Players/table         4             5         6         4         4          4                 43 

Time/player           1h            1h       1h        1h        1h         1h                6h/1h

Players/hour          8             5         12         8         4         8                 43

Players/24h           192          120      288     192      96       192              1080 

Rounds/hour *      90           45       90       90       45       90               450

Rounds/minute    1,5            0.75    1,5       1,5        0.75    1.5               7,5 

Rounds/24h          2160        1080   2160    2160    1080   2160        10 800

Rounds/360d                                                                                3 888 000 

Rake/24h               540         270     2160    2160    6480  6480       13 770

Avg. rake                0.25        0.25     1          1           2         3 

Attracting 1100 (1080) players per 24 hours, or 45 players by the hour, holds the potential to run ten active tables continuously and rake in about $14 000 (13 770) per 24 hours.

2600 players

                                 0.50/1     1/2      2/4     3/6     5/10   High lim.  Total 

No. tables               3             4         3           3        3          4              20 

Players/table         4             5         6          5        5          7               108 

Time/player           1h            1h        1h         1h       1h        1h             6h/1h

Players/hour          12            20       18         15        15        28            108

Players/24h           288         480    432      360     360     672          2592 

Rounds/hour *      135           180    135       135       135      180          900

Rounds/minute    2,25         3        2,25     2,25      2,25    3              15 

Rounds/24h          3240       4320  3240   3240    3240   4320       2160

Rounds/360d                                                                              7 776 000 

Rake/24h               810          1080   3240   3240    6480   12960  27 810

Avg. rake                0.25        0.25    1           1            2          3 

Attracting 2600 (2592) players per 24 hours, or 108 players by the hour, holds the potential to run twenty active tables continuously and rake in about $28 000 (27 810) per 24 hours.

Spread

The business of poker is hence managed through rake and where key factors are number of rounds per hour versus number of concurrent players. However the spread in revenue from one brand to another is in great dependent on table limits and whether the majority of tables are low- medium- or high stake-tables. Healthy poker operations, spread between tables and players should reach an average rake of $1, exclusive of operations cost.