A Poker Job Search reader, Mark, sent me the following email.  I asked him if it was cool if I posted it here and responded to it here since I’m sure it’s a question many others have had as well.

I have been reading your site with interest.

I am a keen young poker player (22years) and am making a reasonable living through playing and am a top ranked player on a couple of online sites.

To date I have funded my uni thru playing and travelled extensively.  I have a good degree in accounting and finance from a top UK uni and am a high achiever both academically and in sports. I would love to work in the poker industry as I regard it as an exciting, fast moving environment and I feel I could make a contribution.

My preferred areas of work would be operations but I would also be very interested in the acquisition and retention side of the business.

My question is do you have any advice on how to get into the industry?

At this stage in my career I lack commercial experience and would be looking for an opportunity to build up skills.

Would you regard it as a possibility to find a suitable position to achieve this within the industry or in your experience are there no openings for
trainees, internships or work experience placements sand would I be advised to look outside initially?

Are there any further training programs I should consider taking to enhance my employment prospects?

Any advice or contacts would be appreciated.

Many thanks

First off, congrats on doing so well at poker. Despite what many people might tell you, not everyone does well enough to be a winning player, let alone fund their university education.

One of the good (and bad) things about the online poker industry is that it’s still relatively a new industry.  There are no real career paths that lead to a job in the online gaming industry.  Many of the people I know in online gaming have backgrounds that have nothing to do with either gaming or their current position.

With a degree in finance there would seem to be plenty of jobs available depending on what you want to do.  Obviously, poker rooms need people to count the money so accounting with be the most obvious fit.  In fact, I think more than a few poker rooms would love to have someone in finance who actually know something about poker since most don’t even know the rules of the game.

If you would like a job in acquisitions or retention it’s a little more difficult because they’ll probably be looking for people with backgrounds in some sort of marketing.  I say difficult but it’s not impossible if you can demonstrate that you have the skills and the desire.

Another area you might excel in is affiliate management.  Many affiliate managers have no clue about poker so having a rep who can speak their language can go a long way.

As far as how to go about your search . . . obviously Poker Job Search is a great way to submit your CV to companies with job openings.  That being said, it’s still a bit of a who-you-know sort of industry so you might try for a role in customer support first just to get your foot in the door.  Then when the company has internal openings for other roles you can apply and will probably have priority over outside candidates.  The pay and hours aren’t great for customer support reps but many people have graduated from the phone banks to their dream jobs  using the role as a stepping stone.  In fact, many self-professed “poker pros” end up working in customer support when they blow their bankroll.  They work a few months getting a salary while they build themselves back up.

Another avenue you might explore is going to conventions and/or large tournaments.  For instance, at the affiliate conventions you can speak to employees at many poker rooms and you might be able to ply some phone numbers or email addresses out of them.  At a big tournament like the EPT they’ll have a lot of staff there so you can also try to work your personal charms and find out what sorts of openings they might have and ask if they could give you an intro to the hiring manager.

All in all, you sound like you have a lot of things going for you and I see no reason why you wouldn’t be able to get a job in the industry.  It’s just a matter of finding out what you want to do and getting your face and CV in front of the right people.  Recruitment agencies can help but your best bet, especially if you have no previous experience, is to try to make some connections so you go in pre-qualified.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Best,

Bill

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I recently received an email from a reader on the site who had some questions about a job he was considering in the online poker industry so I thought I would share his questions and my answers. My answers are in bold.

Hi,

I have played poker like 5 times in my life and almost never online. I’m so glad to be finding all sorts of websites around poker (including yours – poker job search! WOW!)

I’m a web/mobile product manager currently in talks with poker software maker for possible employment.

From my research it seems that poker industry is fairly big (including some public companies).

It would be very kind if you could answer some of my queries:

1. How big are (or could be) the “poker software makers” (no consumer business)? What’s there share in this $ 24 billion (?) industry value-chain?

It depends on what you mean by makers. For instance, a lot of companies claim to be software providers but actually provide online gaming via a different corporate entity. Effectively they have one client and all the employees work for the entity that has the least legal exposure so as to shield the staff and management. So a lot of the answer to your question really depends on what exact niche of software provider you’re talking about.

2. I found numerous poker softwares available online. What could be the possible differentiating factors? Is it not a mature industry in terms of development and growth is only in distribution and newer markets?

That’s pretty much a good analysis of where things are at though I would add that liquidity is a major factor. For instance, if you worked for Pocket Kings which is the provider of software for Full Tilt Poker you would effectively be working for the second largest online poker site in the industry. The bigger they are the easier it is for them to get new customers either via the new markets or increased marketing spending (or both). On the other hand if you worked for No Name Poker Inc who has about 20 players on during peak hours that’s a much riskier proposition because many players will look at the lack of games being spread and go to a room with more tables in play.

The key here would be to look at who they are providing software for. You can check out PokerSiteScout for stats on how many players on each of the major online poker sites which should give you an indication of where their clients rank in the industry.

3. Can pureplay poker software makers be really big without their own consumer business?

Probably not if they are true pure play and don’t have some behind the scenes relationships. Like I discussed when I mentioned liquidity the bottom line for many rooms is how many players there are on the site so that there is a good selection of games at various stakes. Even companies like Yahoo who have an online poker site have opted to join existing poker networks and leverage the existing customer base while they provide basically a skin that sits on top of that network. Many top European betting shops have taken that route as well. If a company thinks they can go out alone without a network and they are not already in the top 10 or so rooms it’s going to be very difficult so the demand for standalone software wouldn’t be anywhere on the level as it is for network providers who also provide the service of running the poker games and can pull together players from many different skins.

4. Any advice that you might want to give (i’m learning poker already!) and useful links that you’d like to share?

It depends on if you’re asking for advice on learning the games themselves or if you’re trying to learn about the industry. As for the games there are tons of books which are probably better resources for learning than websites as they are usually authored by top experts in that game rather than affiliates trying to make money sending players to the online gaming sites. In terms of poker anything by Sklansky, Ed Miller, or Harrington is going to be top notch material.

If you’re talking about the industry that’s a lot more difficult. There are sites like eGaming Review that cover the industry from a business aspect but despite the massive revenues it’s a fairly small industry so news passes around pretty quickly. 2+2, PokerNews, Gambling 911, Wicked Chops, and even my site BillRini.com are good resources. I don’t write about every news story but I do try to give a unique perspective on poker news and dig into past the press releases into what a story really means.

Please assume that when I mention poker it also includes the usual casino, bingo etc. (gambling) games.

Thanks a lot in advance!

(I just realised it’s a pretty big questions but would be very happy if you could spend some time. cheers!)

If anyone has any questions about the online poker industry or about the poker job market please feel to shoot me an email and I will do my best to answer it for you or to hunt down someone with specific expertise who can answer it for you.

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It’s great and all that we can educate you about the online poker industry but that’s not always a guarantee we’re telling you the things you want to know.

If you have any questions about anything pertaining to the online poker industry and a career in online poker either leave a comment below or send us an email.

We’ll try to answer all questions here on the site so everyone can benefit.

Fire away!

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