Online Poker Traffic Rises 1.3 Percent

With summer vacations ending, online poker traffic has managed to climb 1.3 percent during the final week of August 2010 according to PokerScout.com, which monitors “real cash” traffic.  The site points out, however, that online poker traffic overall is still down 4 percent over last year at this time.  It will be interesting to see what if any effect a massive hurricane forecast to ride along the U.S. East Coast has on playing trends this week.

Nine of the top 10 tracked sites and networks saw a week-over-week increase.

PokerScout.com reports that Microgaming may be adversely affected by exclusive games dwindling at both Ladbrokes and Unibet.

Early in 2009 Microgaming split its network into multiple segments, allowing Unibet and Ladbrokes to offer some tables exclusively to their players. Twelve months ago, Ladbrokes and Unibet's exclusive tables accounted for 57% of the network's traffic.

Since then, the exclusive games have dwindled while the games shared by the entire network have grown. Today, the Ladbrokes and Unibet exclusive games comprise only 20% of players on the network, down nearly two-thirds from a year ago.

The site also points out a concern related to Everest Poker’s player base being cut nearly in half to become part of the new French player platform.  But Everest seems to have defied the odds. 

Conventional wisdom dictates that a critical mass of players is key to a poker site's success, so dividing the player pool into two equal parts would seem to be a net negative. However, Everest has managed to defy not only conventional wisdom but a tough competitive market. The combined traffic of Everest's two sites is very nearly the same as 12 months ago.

Patrick Flanagan, Gambling911.com