Managing Editor
DraftKings’ foray into player-vs.-player poker appears to be losing steam as it closes in on its first anniversary. Electric Poker created some buzz when it was first released in August 2024, but what little revenue data is available for the game suggests that player interest subsided quickly.
It was an interesting question that DraftKings asked: Can a jackpot sit-and-go product make money on its own, without a full-scale poker ecosystem to support it? The answer appears to be no, at least for DraftKings. Gross revenue in New Jersey fell below $10,000 in June, and we can infer that it isn’t doing much better in Pennsylvania.
Had the experiment been a success, however, it could have been revolutionary.
The three-handed, ultra-fast tournament format has been a favorite among casual poker players since it was popularized by PokerStars Spin & Go in 2013. Credit for the innovation goes to the French site Winamax, which introduced it as Expresso the year before. Most operators were quick to add similar formats in the ensuing years.
The aggressive rake structure and extremely fast pace of play make it a big money-maker for poker rooms, so long as it remains popular. Meanwhile, the randomized seating, small tables, and short chip stacks reduce the range of game integrity threats an operator has to worry about.
It’s not hard to see why DraftKings would see it as a low-overhead, high-upside way to dip a toe into poker. Unfortunately, the results may not inspire it to dive in any further.
DraftKings is the only one of the “Big Three” US iGaming operators not connected with a poker product. BetMGM has a poker room under its own brand, while Flutter operates FanDuel and PokerStars separately.
Electric Poker Loses Steam After Promising Start
Electric Poker debuted in Michigan, but there’s no direct information on how it performed there. That state’s regulator lumps online casino and poker revenue together, and whatever money Electric Poker earns in the Wolverine State is a drop in the bucket of DraftKings Casino.
Pennsylvania came next, and here we have some circumstantial evidence about the game’s performance.
The Pennsylvania regulator reports poker and casino revenue separately, yet DraftKings operates on the same license as BetMGM. That means Electric Poker’s revenue is mixed in with BetMGM Poker’s.
BetMGM’s poker revenue had been growing at around 24% year-over-year before Electric Poker’s launch. In October, when the new game debuted, the license’s poker revenue jumped to about $150,000 more than what stable growth would have projected.
If we assume all that extra revenue came from Electric Poker, it equates to a promising start. After all, BetMGM was earning only about $500,000 a month from a full-featured poker product at that time.
However, the extra revenue shrank to about $100,000 in November. From there, it dropped to $60,000 in December, and $20,000 in January. By February, any contribution from DraftKings couldn’t be picked out against BetMGM’s baseline growth.
A subsequent jump in May stems from the debut of multi-state poker in Pennsylvania, and has nothing to do with DraftKings.
A launch in New Jersey followed this March. Here, we have exact numbers and can confirm the pattern of initial interest followed by quick decline.
The New Jersey online gambling market is extremely competitive. New products have a harder time standing out than elsewhere. Electric Poker launched with just $36,029 in revenue in the final three weeks of March. April was its first full month, yet revenue had already dropped to $16,941. It then made $14,515 in May and just $8,893 in June.
Novelty Doesn’t Always Lead to Success
Electric Poker is innovative in two ways.
For one thing, it’s the first poker product to be integrated directly into an online casino, without a separate lobby. Sitting down for a match of Electric Poker is as easy as opening a slot or beginning a session of blackjack. That had the potential to draw in a whole new audience.
However, DraftKings also elected to tinker with the jackpot sit-and-go format, adding “Electric Mode” to speed it up further still. After a certain amount of time, which depends on the prize being played for, the players lose the option to fold their hands. At that point, it becomes a game of pure chance, with all remaining players all-in every hand until a winner is decided.
That decision may have hurt the product’s chances. A survey of Reddit threads and other commentary on the game turns up some harsh criticisms and few favorable opinions about the feature.
One user wrote:
The timer confused the hell out of me. I just figured blinds were going up. I haven’t been back to it since.
Another said:
It’s terrible. How can they have a blueprint like PokerStars and then go the complete opposite way of what works?
There may be a limit to how fast and luck-based even casual players want their poker to be. Winamax was also the pioneer of even-faster jackpot sit-and-goes, with Expresso Nitro. Although that is still available, PokerStars recently retired its Spin & Go Flash and merged the format with the regular Spin & Go.
Players may also not like deviations from the standard formula in general. When 888poker debuted its version, BLAST, in 2016, it went with four-player tables to differentiate itself. Three years later, it walked back that decision and changed the game to be three-handed like every other site’s.
US Market Leadership in Poker is Up for Grabs
If DraftKings opts to double down instead of cutting its losses, this would be an interesting time to make a play for the US poker market in a bigger way.
For years, PokerStars was the market leader, but its failure to network Pennsylvania has left the door wide open. WSOP and BetMGM are in a fairly even race to take over as PokerStars’ revenue continues to decline each month, while the newcomer, BetRivers Poker, is currently far behind but growing quickly.
It’s also an open question whether and when the international top dog, GGPoker, will make a play for the US.
Electric Poker wasn’t DraftKings’ first poker experiment, just its first to pit players against each other. Hart Race Hold’em debuted in 2023, pitting a human player against a cartoon avatar of comedian Kevin Hart, who in the game is only capable of going all-in every hand.
