Patrik Selin, CEO of Bodog Poker Network blogs about online poker business on EGR Magazine. "One thing you can be sure of is uncertainty," Selin says about the nature of the business. "That goes double for the market leaders."


To clarify Selin's point, look at what happened to previous market leaders in online poker:

- Planet Poker: 100% market share in 1998, nowadays only a play money site
- Paradise Poker: more than 80% market share in 2000, now part of IPN Network (2.5%)
- PartyPoker: more than 50% in 2005, now about 6.5%

All three had their individual reasons for losing their dominating positions, but Selin sees three things that are the main factors in the power shifts in the industry: technology, marketing, and legal changes.

Today PokerStars has around 40% market share, Full Tilt Poker has 20%, and the rest put together have about the same market share as PokerStars.

"Who will be leading the race in the future I can’t predict, but what I can say is that complacency is your worst enemy in this industry. And those of us who are new, flexible, hungry and well-funded are coming to take advantage," Selin says of the ever changing landscape of online poker.

Source: EGR Magazine.