888 suffers "worst performance in recent history"

[The Buzz]

In what Poker Industry PRO called the company's "worst performance in recent history," 888 Holdings experienced a 28% decline year-over-year in the first half of 2018. This comes following a 7.7% drop in 2017, meaning the company's poker revenue has dipped every year since 2014.

From PokerNews.com:

Last year, much of the drop was blamed on the loss of Australia. The market has historically been home to one of the world's most enthusiastic gambling populations, but regulatory fallout led all licensed operators to exit from Down Under.

That reasoning was again pointed to for 2018. The impact of the FIFA World Cup and changes in the poker market such as regulatory shifts in Europe were also cited. Regarding the latter, for example, Italy recently adopted stringent new rules for advertising that will severely limit customer acquisition opportunities for betting companies.

Although PRO didn't mention it, there's also no doubt strong competition from other operators has made the overall market perhaps tougher than it's been in years.

Market leader PokerStars continues to be a dominating presence and roll out extremely popular live and online events.

Read more here: https://www.pokernews.com/news/2018/...alf-32223.htm?

[icium]

888 is one of the best affiliate programs in europe

[ocreditor]

Well Poker world is way different from casino and sports world and very hard to complete PokerStars which sponsor all the best Poker players...
Also PokerStars have much more prestigious tournaments so it's only natural that they'll continue to dominate.

[LeeGwilliam]

Only ever played at 888 once, must be more than three years back, was going through a KYC rage with stars at the time so decided to try their product.

Two weeks later I was back at Stars breathing a sigh of relief, hope the 888 product has improved since then as I couldn't wait to get off it.

[PROFRBcom]

They don't offer rev share to their poker affiliates. Instead they do crazy SEO purchases, pretty much everywhere. I can only imagine what their budget is. Then again, Stars ****** their affiliates over as well and Party still has affiliates but doesn't surpass either of them so I guess the point I was about to make about affiliates not driving them traffic could be moot.

Outside of tournaments, all the big Euro-centric poker sites suck.

[CasinoDefence]

Never liked 888. They have the slowest paying casinos in the industry (average is around 88-92 hours in testing) and recent bad publicity regarding responsible gambling can't have helped.

[Cash Bonus]

Unfortunately, they also have a lot of complaints against them which doesn’t help.

[sportsbookh]

Excuses, excuses, excuses... What I see is just people in charge being extremely lazy. They bring nothing to the table, except maybe liiiiitle bit weaker than average player competition in poker. High rake, no loyalty program. You don't agree? 1-3% rakeback is not a loyalty program.
Their last bigger software remake was in 2011-2012. They have one of the worst interfaces; getting money in and out is always such a mess. Yes, they have slow withdrawals (48-96hrs to Neteller), which also makes them look scummy. Also they have slow customer support - it's now 3rd day I'm waiting for an answer why all my player notes (made over 5 years period) are gone, although file itself is there.

[Former Member 14]

Years ago I always thought working with aff programs/casinos who were public traded companies, was the way to go. Lots of capital etc., etc. However after being shafted once, I soon realised, investors, directors and company board's, will always be striving to increase their bottom line. And, the collateral damage of that, is almost always, small to medium affiliates.

Besides that, and in respect to 888 et al, they have a very shady past.

888...seems to like making money, but when it comes to paying out, they drag their feet. I wouldn't touch 888 et al with a barge-pole!

[JamieG1981]

Pokerstars have always been miles ahead of the rest, however PartyPoker are closing the gap fast. In the long term, I don't think 888 have the reputation and knowledge to compete with PS and PP. Some of the gaurentees and live events that are going on are insane.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[sweetbet]

888 has screwed so many affiliates that I feel absolutely no sympathy for them whatsoever.

[JamieG1981]

888 has screwed so many affiliates that I feel absolutely no sympathy for them whatsoever.

Can't say we have worked with them, however have met them on a number of occasions at the affiliate conferences. Promised the world to your face and never delivered after. Glad we gave them a miss.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[LeeGwilliam]

Casino performance - So-So apart from the GCC markets (Where I've seen them very strong)
They have just restructured the team (Yesterday) so maybe things will improve.

Sports is another story - always found the product (and the team handling it) to be a far higher level.

[casinodonkies.com]

Sorry to hear that. Our players almost never have any problem with 888 Casino. I used to play poker there years ago and I really liked the software.

[Cardy007]

It makes a lot of sense what guys are saying in this thread as to why they have seen almost 30% decline year on year.

The Lack of software updates, Long cash out process, poor loyalty program - combine that with underpar offers for affiliates to deliver traffic there way - no doubt they are in decline! Combine that with new tax increase Im hearing about for Remote games tax and the are set for even more revenue downturn!