According to legal and economic business solutions provider Academicon, views on the estimated size of the soon to be regulated online gambling market in the Netherlands are often biased by political agendas.
Academicon says the currently unregulated Dutch online poker market shows a sharp decline according to independent research undertaken on the online poker database of the University of Hamburg in collaboration with PokerScout.
Based on data of 4.6 million real money online poker players in 2009 and 2010 and another 2.9 million players in 2013, Academicon found both a decline in the number of online poker players as well as a decline in wagers placed per player per annum.
Furthermore, a Dutch behavioural analysis shows the majority rarely play and those that do, place minor bets.
The market is apparently driven by a small group of players (1 percent) who contribute 47 percent of game volume.