Gaming versus gambling ARPUs

Online poker revenue datapoint
This article on the online poker industry in Italy was interesting enough that I had to post it:
Online poker players in Italy spend an average of $881 per person a year on the pastime producing a yearly haul of $514 million according to a new survey released as the nation’s Government gets set to legalise, license and control Internet gambling.
Normalized down to month, this nets out to $73 ARPU/month!
I have no idea how this compares to the broader set of online gambling, or if it mostly has to do with the specific demographics in Italy.
Comparison to virtual good games
Compare this some numbers that Jeremy Liew posted in his excellent analysis on free-to-play and Facebook app monetization.
- Second Life: $9.30 ARPU/month
- Club Penguin: $1.62 ARPU/month
- Habbo Hotel: $1.30 ARPU/month
- Runescape: $0.84 ARPU/month
- Facebook apps: $1.20 ARPU/month
Given that games and gambling go (somewhat) hand-in-hand, at least in terms of product and design, I’m curious what you might be able to learn in one that you could apply to the other. This is similar to the common belief that the techniques in the online direct response world all trace their roots in the adult industry.
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Poker is good but the ARPU's of house games like blackjack are much more. But Poker has a wide appeal so i guess its makes up in volume.
Gopi
6 Sep 08 at 9:53 am
gopi, do you have any sense for what the ARPUs for blackjack are? Any idea of dollar amount?
Andrew Chen
6 Sep 08 at 5:28 pm
check out this article, there is some interesting figures about online gambling.
http://www.poker-king.com/poker-king-articles.p...
very good blog Andrew.
Julien
10 Sep 08 at 5:55 pm
Thanks for sharing
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thepocker
8 Nov 08 at 6:31 pm
If your into online poker like me you might want to check this out! I have a poker blog! Online Poker Blog
dave
20 Nov 08 at 11:59 am
thanks!
icianician
5 Feb 09 at 10:46 pm
Online gambling is going to overwhelm just about any other industry. Let's not forget about
the whales that gamble 30 or 40 thousand dollars a month at the online casinos. Yes, it does happen.
gambling
22 Feb 09 at 8:18 pm
I love to play to casino online!
CastigaPeNet
16 Mar 09 at 3:45 am
quite big ARPU, no wonder there are lots of gambling sites, like casinos are everywhere
i wonder how much ARPU the bingo sites are getting from it's player
bingo uk
5 Sep 09 at 6:08 pm
The thing is that online gambling is played largely by adults while Runescape and the like are mainly played by kids (up to 24, let's say) so it's not really a like to like comparison. The mindset is also very different between the two.
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19 Nov 09 at 9:30 am