Hot hands: The surge of online poker

By Diego Vasquez

Online gambling sites have grown impressively over the past six months, driven by the country’s renewed fascination with poker.
During April, comScore Network’s gambling category of sites attracted 29.13 million unique visitors, a 14.5 percent increase versus 25.43 million visitors last November.
The top drawer was iGlobalMedia Entertainment’s network of sites, which includes PartyPoker.com, StarLuckCasino.com and PartyBingo.com. The iGlobalMedia sites attracted 10.35 million visitors last month, up 166 percent versus 3.89 million visitors last April. To gamble on an iGlobalMedia’s site, a user need only download the appropriate software and set up an account.
But for all the impressive growth of poker sites, you'll hear little crowing from their parent companies, and indeed it's a challenge to learn much about them beyond the scant information provided on their sites.
Based in Gibraltar, iGlobalMedia’s corporate site lists email addresses but no phone numbers. A call to a PartyPoker.com customer service center in India got a live agent on the phone but he declined to provide corporate contact information.
The likely reason for this reticence is the testy debate over the legality of online poker, which has become something of an international issue. In 2000, the operator of a gambling site based in Antigua was sentenced to 21 months in prison by a U.S. federal court for accepting sports bets online. But two years later a U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that federal laws banning sports betting did not include gambling on casino-type games found on sites like PartyPoker.com. And last year the World Trade Organization ruled that U.S. laws against online gambling violated international trade agreements.
Of comScore’s top 15 gambling sites in April, just iWin.com and FreeSlots.com appear to be based in the U.S.
And while the debate over their legality goes on, some poker sites have been running TV ads featuring endorsements from well-known American players.
One, from London-based PokerStars.com, features former World Series of Poker champions Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer. The ads clearly state that PokerStars.com is not a gambling site, but a quick visit shows that betting is allowed. The main page of the site advertises a weekly No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $350,000.

Elsewhere on the internet, during the week ended May 8, Microsoft, Time Warner, Yahoo, Google and eBay were the top five parent companies for the second straight week, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
InterActive Corp., Vonage, Dell, Netflix and Verizon were the top five advertisers. SBC and Bell South dropped out of the top five.
For the fourth straight week average usage was steady at 16 sessions per person, though average domains visited per person dropped from 36 to 35. PC time per person fell 2.39 percent to just over 14 hours and 57 minutes.

Top 15 Gambling Sites April 2005
#	Site	Nov. ’04 Unique Audience (000)	April ’04 Unique Audience (000)
1	iGlobalMedia Entertainment Inc.	7,026	10,346
2	Cassava Enterprises Ltd.	5,719	9,574
3	VEGASFRONTIER.COM	754	3,105
4	BINGOCABIN.COM	87	2,881
5	Sports Interaction Sportsbook and Casino	2,432	1,507
6	Carmen Media Group	1,408	1,411
7	CRYSTALPALACECASINO.COM	194	1,254
8	InterContinental Casinos (ICC)	869	1,142
9	ROXYPALACE.COM	122	1,120
10	iWin Network	952	1,036
11	InterCasino Sites	253	1,027
12	DIAMONDDEALCASINO.COM	N/A	944
13	VEGASLUCKY.COM	761	922
14	ULTIMATEBET.COM	399	884
15	FREESLOTS.COM	921	878
Source: comScore Media Metrix

Top 25 parent companies Week Ended May 15
#	Parent	Unique Audience (000)	Reach %	Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1	Microsoft	76,049	60.0	0:40:49
2	Time Warner	67,260	53.1	1:47:44
3	Yahoo!	64,896	51.2	1:03:14
4	Google	49,170	38.8	0:15:03
5	eBay	26,835	21.2	0:59:07
6	United States Government	25,012	19.7	0:15:45
7	Amazon	16,659	13.2	0:12:12
8	InterActiveCorp	16,362	12.9	0:14:00
9	RealNetworks	16,139	12.7	0:20:29
10	Landmark Communications	14,624	11.5	0:12:25
11	Walt Disney Internet Group	14,154	11.2	0:16:20
12	New York Times Company	12,999	10.3	0:12:27
13	United Online	12,946	10.2	0:33:21
14	Ask Jeeves	12,875	10.2	0:15:23
15	Viacom International	12,239	9.7	0:14:26
16	CNET Networks	11,277	8.9	0:08:28
17	Apple Computer	10,380	8.2	0:20:29
18	Verizon Communications	9,839	7.8	0:12:25
19	Network Associates	8,770	6.9	0:20:15
20	Gannett	8,619	6.8	0:10:11
21	Daum Communications	8,210	6.5	0:04:33
22	SBC Communications	8,117	6.4	0:11:02
23	Bank of America	7,946	6.3	0:25:39
24	AWS Convergence Technologies	7,460	5.9	0:11:10
25	News Corp. Online	7,227	5.7	0:13:03
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

Top 25 brands Week Ended May 15
	Parent	Unique Audience (000)	Reach %	Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1	Yahoo!	64,436	50.9	1:03:22
2	MSN	59,182	46.7	0:35:20
3	Microsoft	55,636	43.9	0:18:10
4	AOL	48,725	38.5	2:16:23
5	Google	48,149	38.0	0:14:46
6	eBay	25,507	20.1	0:58:39
7	Real	15,816	12.5	0:19:30
8	Amazon	14,306	11.3	0:11:45
9	Weather Channel	14,298	11.3	0:12:28
10	MapQuest	13,581	10.7	0:07:37
11	Apple	10,380	8.2	0:20:29
12	CNN	9,556	7.5	0:20:39
13	Netscape	8,608	6.8	0:16:08
14	McAfee	8,472	6.7	0:20:43
15	Lycos Network	8,210	6.5	0:04:33
16	About.com	7,717	6.1	0:03:42
17	WeatherBug	7,396	5.8	0:11:10
18	Bank of America	6,945	5.5	0:25:57
19	Paypal	6,882	5.4	0:12:32
20	Dell	6,838	5.4	0:09:31
21	Expedia	6,409	5.1	0:08:55
22	Gorilla Nation Media	5,998	4.7	0:05:52
23	Comcast	5,992	4.7	0:23:10
24	EarthLink	5,817	4.6	0:34:09
25	ESPN	5,465	4.3	0:18:43
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads) Week Ended May 15
#	Company	Impressions (000)
1	InterActiveCorp	777,158
2	Vonage Holdings Corp	696,442
3	Dell Computer Corporation	592,109
4	Netflix, Inc.	553,736
5	Verizon Communications, Inc.	531,280
6	LowerMyBills.com, Inc.	483,186
7	Monster Worldwide, Inc.	392,473
8	Scottrade, Inc.	349,448
9	SBC Communications, Inc.	339,762
10	Apollo Group, Inc.	337,404
11	United Online, Inc.	334,095
12	BellSouth Corporation	330,297
13	Viacom Inc	298,691
14	Orbitz	272,448
15	Ameritrade Holding Corporation	266,107
16	American Express Company	221,539
17	Primus Telecommunications	214,358
18	NexTag.com	205,209
19	L.A. Gear	188,536
20	Ford Motor Company	177,160
21	Lavalife Inc.	165,002
22	TD Bank Financial Group	159,703
23	General Motors Corporation	158,964
24	YourSmartRewards	151,994
25	Bank of Montreal	148,607
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance

http://www.medialifemagazine.com - 2005-05-25 02:53:45