WSOP, British Open Record Traffic to Gambling911 Site
Gambling911.com really experienced great traffic over the last three days thanks to the one-two punch of this week's British Open and the World Series of Poker main event. It is truly gratifying to see our terrific search rankings translating into quality readership. Our Poker section continues to rank among the most read areas of the website. I would also like to note our top referrers for the last 24 hours (other than Google and Bing): SomethingAwful.com, PocketFives.com (always a great read) and the popular Two Plus Two Posting Forum. I would also add that the Poker Road Tweet was a top referrer on Wednesday.
Wednesday's early traffic was mostly made up of late minute British Open bettors (or punters as they are called in the UK). By nightfall, the vast majority of traffic came as a result of the 2009 WSOP and that continued throughout the night once the November Nine was finally determined around 2:00 am EST. By the way, Gambling911.com called 11 pm PST as the finishing time early in the day and we pretty much nailed it.
Now for another daring prediction: The 2009 World Series of Poker final table will enjoy record television ratings for ESPN when it is televised nearly live in November. We pretty much called something similar with this season's Celebrity Apprentice featuring poker star, Annie Duke, early on and by the finale, that television show had its best ratings in years.
I'm pretty confident about the ratings potential based on two primary factors: Phil Ivey and Jeff Shulman.
Ivey is a bona fide poker star and the online sportsbooks are probably cringing over the idea he might win since they listed him as the favorite at pretty big payout odds (he's still pay a couple thousand per hundred wagered). Ivey got tons of search inquiries throughout the past couple of days and well into last night.
Amazingly though it was Jeff Shulman, editor of Card Player Magazine, who managed to get more traction, albeit by about 20 visits. Shulman made the comment yesterday that he was going to throw out the WSOP bracelet if he were to win it. This had everybody talking.
The British Open goes through Sunday and we anticipate some excess traffic come Sunday. Typically these golf tournaments do not attract a whole lot of gamblers (or traffic for that matter) once they get underway, despite being able to bet on them at a few of the online sportsbooks during the late afternoon and evening hours.
Incidentally, Lada Gaga Naked continues to drive traffic to the Gambling911.com website. She is featured on the website as a result of her poker anthem.
With the WSOP winding down until November, we will continue to provide readers with top of the line poker stories, including a number of interviews Jenny Woo has coming up these next couple of days.
No rest for the weary here at Gambling911.com. We're about to deliver some of the most expansive football betting coverage on earth long before the season kicks off late August/early September.
Payton O'Brien, Gambling911.com Senior Editor
