The latest research from International Game Technology and DoubleDown Casino shows that women make up the fastest growing segment of social casino player, now making up more than one-third of players. This information comes as a follow-up to DoubleDown Casino’s most recent US Social Casino Index, which analyzes social casino player preferences based on the more than six million people playing DoubleDown Casino’s games on Facebook and mobile devices every month.
As DoubleDown Casino has tracked trends with its Social Casino Index project, they have discovered poker continues to expand its appeal to a broader audience. According to John Clelland, Vice President of Global Marketing at IGT Interactive Group, “Poker is traditionally thought of as a man’s game, but our data proves that female poker players are on the rise in social casino.”
DoubleDown Casino offers more than 40 free-to-play social casino games and emphasizes that they offer an authentic Vegas-style experience with everyone welcome to play online for fun. They have discovered that of all their games, poker is consistently one of the most popular with all audiences. The four types of poker they offer include Texas Hold’em, Five Card Draw, Omaha Poker and Wild Action Texas Hold’em. The majority of poker players are men, but in 2013, there was a 22 percent increase in female players compared with 2012.
In 2013, at the World Series of Poker main event, there were greater numbers of women participating than ever before, with an increase of 47 percent from 2012.
Women appear to be just as enthralled with free-to-play online poker as men and spend just as much time playing. And they now play 3 percent more virtual chips than men, despite their lower numbers. They clearly prefer online poker to live tournaments, where they generally make up less than 5 percent of participants. Online, between 10 and 20 percent of players are women.
There are regional variations in the way women play. In Hawaii, women are especially avid players, spending almost 6.5 hours playing online every month. The Social Casino Index revealed that players in Hawaii used their mobile phones for play more than any other state, a fact which may explain the amount of time they spend playing poker.
Regional differences are also clear in the number of virtual chips played per sessions. The high number comes from Utah, where players averaged almost 8 million virtual chips per session; obviously, they love to take chances! In Wyoming, women were far more conservative, with the lowest number of virtual chips per session, less than 1 million.
DoubleDown Casino is the top-grossing social casino. Their games are free-to-play and include Poker, Blackjack, Slots, Roulette, Bingo and others. Their games can be played online, on Facebook, and mobile devices.
International Game Technology, which acquired DoubleDown Casino in 2012, specializes in the production and delivery of gaming machines and network system products worldwide. IGT provides social casino games to more than 6 million players monthly and produces approximately half of the slot machines in the United States.
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