Online Poker Traffic up Nearly 3 Percent: PokerStars, Full Tilt see First Declines Ever
Growth in the online poker sector continued this week, having grown an impressive 3 percent in just 14 days according to PokerScout.com. Eight of the top ten poker rooms enjoyed gains this week.
Our friends at the Cereus Network were among the two rooms that witnessed a decline (4 percent) after more than $1 million was finally won as part of their Bad Beat Jackpot. The Bad Beat Jackpot has become one of the most popular promotions in the online poker arena. It helped push Cereus into 5th place ahead of Ongame but this week falls back to 6th. PartyPoker also lost some traction with the conclusion of their own popular promotion.
PartyPoker does seem to have a firm grasp on the number 3 spot after weeks of fighting over that position with rival iPoker. Their 24 hour peak as of press time was nearly 1100 more than iPoker. On average they have 400 more “real cash” players.
The big news of the week in terms of online poker traffic is the number one and number two card rooms, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, seeing their first year-over-year declines ever.
Still, it should be noted that some of those departures have ended up on the sites Italian and French card rooms. All total, the two networks own nearly 60 percent of the total Internet poker market.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
