Startups Want to Build the Next Generation of Online Video Poker Platforms. Is the Business Investable?

Recently BCG published a piece where it argued that games now “function as platforms,” a line that gets close to the real business question in this market. The investable opportunity is not the card format alone. It is the platform layer built around it: fast mobile delivery, low-friction payments, event-level analytics, personalized offers, and live content updates that improve retention over time.

BCG’s latest gaming report also notes that mobile still represents about half of global gaming revenue, that mobile in-app purchases in 2025 are expected to total almost $130 billion, and that 33% of adult gamers surveyed had already made at least one purchase through a developer-owned web store. Those signals show a wider shift in how digital entertainment products are distributed, improved, and monetized. This is the setting in which startups are trying to modernize a familiar card-based product for a newer audience.

A format built for screens from the start

The business case begins with a simple historical point. Some card games reached the internet after long lives as table games tied to a wheel, a dealer, chips, and a shared floor setup. Video poker came up differently. It grew inside electronic gaming, not beside it. General reference works still describe roulette as an 18th century European casino game and blackjack as a dealer-led table card game, while electronic games are defined by computer circuitry, mobile devices, and server-based networks.

In that context, the rise of video poker’s rise in the 1970s matters because it means the format was screen-native from the start. It did not need a deep redesign to fit digital distribution. Its core loop already matched software: deal, choose holds, draw, settle, repeat. That makes it much easier to package online than games whose identity still depends on a live table scene.

The structure of the game also supports durable engagement. One academic review of online gambling formats found that platform type and the role of skill are major features that separate digital gambling products from one another. That fits video poker well because each hand asks the user to make a small but real choice, and that choice changes the result.

Today, online products built around this format usually offer a much broader package than the older single-machine model. Current digital catalogs and store listings show three-hand, five-hand, ten-hand, and even 100-hand modes, along with families such as Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker, and Double Double Bonus Poker (see the image below). They also show multi-game menus, progressive-style jackpot layers, and touch-led controls that let users hold multiple cards quickly on mobile.

The startup opportunity

That is already a strong base, but there is still clear room to improve the platform side. The best opportunities are cleaner pay-table comparison, smarter onboarding into the right variant, better mobile layouts for multi-hand play, session memory across devices, richer tournament and streak systems, and more useful strategy support built into the interface.

The data proves that startups are building into a large, still-growing digital entertainment market.

Those upgrades would not change the identity of video poker. Rather, they would make discovery easier, play smoother, and retention stronger, which is exactly where startup value is most likely to be created.

The economics are improving around the product

A business like this becomes more interesting when the surrounding digital stack is already moving in the right direction. Distribution is broader, networks are better, and digital payment access is deeper. That lowers the amount of friction between product launch and customer use.

Startups no longer need to bet on a future where the infrastructure finally arrives. Much of it is already here. That shifts the job from proving technical possibility to proving product quality and customer economics. A capable team still needs strong execution, but the outside conditions are more favorable than they were a few years ago.

In business terms, that makes the category easier to model. The core question becomes whether a startup can build a platform that converts attention into repeat use at a reasonable cost.

Retention will decide who is truly investable

The next generation of platforms will be judged less by launch polish and more by their ability to keep users engaged over time. That is where modern tooling changes the picture.

IBM found that 71% of marketing leaders plan to focus more on customer loyalty in the next year. On another note, it tells us that 52% of customers stopped using or buying from a brand because they had a bad experience.

For startups, these numbers matter because they show that customers care about the whole journey. A business needs to make things:

• smoother,
• more personal,
• and more consistent at every step.

That is why the sector looks more durable than a narrow reading might suggest. A startup that treats the product as a living platform can grow beyond simple gameplay metrics. It can improve time spent, repeat visits, offer response, session recovery, and customer value over months instead of days. Investors tend to reward businesses that can measure those improvements clearly. In this category, the product design makes that measurement unusually direct.

The business is investable when founders treat it as a software and retention problem, not only as a game launch.