On the outside looking in, one would think that Real Gaming’s soft launch in the Nevada internet poker market has been an utter failure. Over a month after opening, Real Gaming are averaging zero cash game players an hour. What’s more is that there have been complaints that the software hasn’t been on par with Nevada’s other two operators, WSOP and Ultimate Poker.
But according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Real Gaming aren’t concerned at all about how things are going now. In fact, the Silver State’s third online poker site seem pretty content with where they’re sitting at the moment.
Real Gaming Putting Loyal Customers Above All Else
The one thing that Real Gaming have going for themselves is that they haven’t even tried to promote the site. There have been no marketing efforts on behalf of the poker room, nor has there been any mention of Real Gaming’s affiliation with South Point Casino. Instead, it looks like this poker site want to start out slow during their testing and soft launch, which could take as long as 180 days.
“Our customers know the South Point brand,” said Lawrence Vaughan, co-founder of Real Gaming. “We want to be extremely quiet and deal with a small, but loyal, customer base and accelerate from there.”
Lots of Real Gaming Players Using iPads to Access the Site
In working with the customer base, Vaughan discovered that what little play Real Gaming are getting is often coming from iPad users. And he thinks that this could mean a lot of casual gaming in the future…
I reached out to one of our customers, who had been playing the most hands of anyone, and he told us he was playing on an iPad from a poker room here in town. I’ve done some random pull-ups on geolocation to see where people are playing from. They are not just playing from their homes. They are out and about. I think over time we’re going to see the casual gamer become primarily mobile.
Real Gaming Aren’t Dwelling On Their Late Nevada Entry
One inevitable question that the Review-Journal brought up was Vaughan’s thoughts about Real Gaming being third into the Nevada online poker market. After all, the poker site had originally thought that they’d be the first to launch – a vision that was shattered when Ultimate opened a little over a year ago.
“(The delay) made me realize this is a long game and we’re at the beginning of a new era of gaming,” Vaughan said. “It really doesn’t matter if you were first or not and it doesn’t matter if you trip out the door.”
Based on everything that Vaughan stated, it’s certainly possible that Real Gaming could become a player in the Nevada market. This is especially the case when they get some serious marketing efforts going. But for now, it looks like they’re content to move slowly and continue working with customers to create a better overall product.