From time to time I get to break away from my normal routine and attend industry events, and this week was one of those times. The event on tap was the iGaming North America conference, one of the key US-based events for the online gaming industry. Ever since the conference’s first run in 2011, it’s been one of the staples of the US-based industry – the people working toward the future of legal, regulated internet gaming in the US market. It’s an opportunity to network with industry folks, and also to attend panels where many of the best minds in poker, casino, daily fantasy sports and eSports discuss and debate the direction of their respective products.

I attended several panels during the conference, but I was particularly looking forward to one on the final day that featured a slate of names that would be recognizable to many in poker. The panel was moderated by Dustin Gouker, who heads up content for LegalSportsReport.com. Panelists included longtime PocketFives member and online poker star Jimmy ‘gobboboy’ Fricke, former PokerTracker executive Steven McLoughlin, and poker and DFS grinder Ed Miller.

The subject of the panel was player ecosystems.*Discussion centered around the fragile state of balance required to have a healthy economy in peer to peer gaming.*While most of the discussion was centered around poker, but there was also plenty of talk about DFS and even a foray or two into eSports.

Early on, Gouker brought up the fact that in all of these ecosystems, there are winners and losers, asking the panelists to expand on what was necessary from the industry to maintain the right balance. Fricke responded by referencing “certain companies” that are moving their focus now to bringing in new recreational players – a focus I’d argue these companies have always had, even if they’re now shifting their tactics. Fricke’s concern is that these new players aren’t the type of players who start games, or who keep games running, and that many of them only play once a month or even less often than that. McLoughlin went on to note that there’s quite a bit of misused terminology for player types. He believes the key to better engagement with recreational players is to educate them and make them tougher competitors at the table.

One point of agreement between everyone, whether discussing DFS or poker or anything else, was that live events are key, and that the in-person social engagement of players leads to much better retention. Fricke affirmed his strong believe that live and online poker are complimentary products, while Miller talked about the need for DFS sites to do more live, regional events for their players.

The discussion went in a more philosophical when Gouker asked what it is that motivates people to play peer-to-peer games. Miller took the first shot, saying he believes they see the top competitors and want to get to that level themselves. Players see the complexity of games such as poker and DFS first hand and are fascinated by it, and they believe that if they work long enough and hard enough that they can reach the highest levels. Poker and DFS alike are full of hard problems with answers that aren’t obvious to anyone, and the better a player becomes, the more new challenges they find in the game. McLoughlin added that human beings fundamentally like to use our brains, and believes poker is the prototype of the future. He does, however, think there will be simpler versions that keep newer players’ chances of winning higher than they are in the game we know. Fricke disagreed with that last point, stating that it shouldn’t be too easy to get to the top of the game. He talked about people who observe on Twitch or elsewhere, whether it’s poker or DFS or eSports, and are fascinating with the skill and knowledge of the players at the highest levels.

By the end of the hour we knew quite a bit more than we all did going in about how people with extensive experience on both the player and industry side feel about the direction of the poker economy, and where things are headed. I really enjoyed taking part in iGNA and hope to be back in 2017.