888 drops 10% in figures
Posted on April 29, 2010 by John Trevors for Luckyroom.com
The once almighty 888 brand has presented figures down by 10% for the first quarter of 2010 as it has lost 9.3p to 84.5p with recorded revenue around 13% below its average with the major problem of the brand being its poker brand which seems to be losing valuable ground against US facing internet poker giants due to an incapability to pick up with standards set by Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.
The rebranding, the face lift and all the latest efforts put in from 888 seem to be not contributing to the overall rise of the brand as obvious poor effort which has been put in the new site designs and the marketing of creatives is eventually presenting its backfire on the overall health of the brand due to incapability to match with increasing fearful competition coming from RTG and Playtech powered online casinos and the threat coming to its poker segment from US facing poker giants Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars which are running in full throttle in terms of marketing both online and offline.
The traditional methods of advertising and the strong brand recognition are eventually fading out and results are reflecting in the accounting during the first quarter of this difficult year as the once well exposed 888 brands are nowhere to be found across portals and online gaming directories with webmasters complaining about poor creatives and offers that are not well articulated to players.
Additionally although respected online financial journals are stating that the drop in 888’s figures does not correlate with the Greek mid life crisis we would say that the huge betting Greek audience is recording an overall drop in betting activities as disposable income is more or less not available adding up to the many Greek targeted betting and casino brands heavily marketed in Greece.
It is obvious that a respectable amount of expenses have been made to redesign and rebrand the gaming products under the 888 wing but it is sad to say that wrong decisions have been made as the new sites are less attractive than the previous older designs and the available creatives for the new redesigned betting brand and bingo brand are at the least poor which clearly show a lack of correct budget disposal and a clear misdirection towards a cost effective plan.
It is well mentioned that management of 888 has reported that it feels that the significant problem recorded in its poker product is not unique as they fell there is a general problem across the border for European facing online poker rooms; a statement which we would say is invalid as the main problem reported across European facing online poker rooms was one posted by poker skins or white labels due to the strict policies set by Playtech (ipoker) and Boss Media towards site owners and not a problem of liquidity or poor player numbers from by hosting networks as overall figures in combined traffic and player volume have presented an incline.
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