The Unique HT User distribution of Iraq

The Iraqi league is one of a kind in Hattrick. It could be the only league where there hasn't been a single team from its capital (Baghdad) not to win the championship. That's right. Since the birth of the league, there have been 5 different teams (not counting bots) that have won the Dawri Al-Mumtaz. All 5 of these teams come from the northern governorate of Erbil. This despite the fact that out of the 18 governorates in Iraq, Erbil is only 8th in terms of population. So what does this tell us about Iraq?

Erbil is one of 3 Iraqi governorates (along with Dohuk and Slemaniya) that make up the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region in the north. Unlike the rest of the country, Iraqi Kurdistan is relatively safe. There hasn't been a single terror attack in this northern region for 3 years now. Due to good security of the region, foreign companies have been able to come and invest in the region. There are now many different internet companies in Dohuk, Erbil and Slemaniya. With companies competing with each other, it has led to the internet access greatly improving in Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the rest of Iraq continues to rely on Internet Cafes for access, the Iraqi Kurdistan region's population now can easily have good internet service at their homes. The average speed of the internet now is at a solid 30 KB. That's good enough to easily browse through Hattrick.

So this explains why the Iraqi Kurdistan region currently makes up 45% of all Iraqi users (21 of 46), when its population only makes up about 18% of Iraq (approximately 5.5 million out of 30 million.) Many have argued (including me) that it's the language barrier that is keeping Iraq from expanding in HT. But we should not forget that the security of the country is a big factor as well. If Baghdad becomes safer, internet access will improve. And with that, we should see a spike in Iraqi users in Hattrick.

Link directly to this article (HT-ML, for the forum): [ArticleID=9431]