So what are the big stories for this year? Consolidation and growth? We think so. Sure there has been a lot of talk about 888 Holdings, owners of 888 Casino-on-Net and Pacific Poker, and their intentions to sell. But just how aggressive is Ladbrokes? 888 has had a good year in the market and Ladbrokes is desperate to make a concerted push at the North American market. They are currently operating Ladbrokespoker.com successfully in the UK, Scandinavia and some parts of the Far East. So it makes sense. Plus they can also offer Sports Book to 888’s audience, so seemingly a good fit. So what does 888 Chief Executive, John Anderson, an ex-employee of Ladbrokes, think? He won’t say. Interestingly there are some other options on the table. Pokerstars, the Israeli owned poker site and world’s second largest, have been touting their wares and recently moved their operation to the Isle of Man. And talk is there may be a twist in the tail as 888 Holdings, also Israeli owned, maybe interested along with Ladbrokes and William Hill. So what does all this mean for players? We always look at this from the players’ point of view and this feels like more of the same. Casino is bigger business than poker in the US and poker is bigger in Europe, so it makes complete sense that these two companies and indeed a couple of other big mergers should happen this year (we’ll keep you update when we know more). But yet again the shareholders will do well and the players will be treated like cattle. “It’s just a numbers game,” said one online casino CEO to us at a recent seminar. “We’re trying to find an economic way of improving customer care but the figures don’t stack up, so we don’t bother. The truth is that until my competitors do, we don’t have to. Why spend money when you don’t have to?” Insightful, but a real eye opener in to how the customer is perceived. Apparently great customer care and attention is two to three years away as ‘nothing is really being done about it’. We couldn’t help but ask around the industry to see what this meant to other online casinos. The results amazed us. Especially when compared to other sectors. Most Directors said pretty much the same thing. Customer relationship management is not sophisticated. Given the numbers involved this surprised us. But what did our customer survey say? No surprise there. 74% of our survey of 2,147 responses said that they would recommend an online casino to a friend if they received ‘excellent customer service’ and had ‘an enjoyable experience’. 82% of people asked said they would try a new online casino if ‘highly recommended’ by a friend. 68% of people said that they would try a new online casino if it was ‘recommended’ by other players. Now what does this tell you?