Online poker cash game traffic monitoring website PokerScout.com released its Weekly Online Poker Traffic Update Monday, revealing the first weekly increase in the number of players sitting down to ring games in two months.
Before everyone starts jumping for joy, it was only a half a percent increase, but still, that is better than the alternative. Compared to the same time last year, though, overall market traffic is down 18 percent. PokerScout advises, though, that this figure is a bit misleading, as PokerStars’ 80 billionth hand promotion was in full swing. As those celebrations always do, it drew more players than normal to Stars, as people were seeking a healthy payday by being involved in milestone hands. Thus, the year-over-year decline is likely less than the numbers indicate.
Of course, all eyes were on Ultimate Poker, which last week became the first legal, regulated online poker room to launch in Nevada. It is not impacting overall industry traffic much, but the launch was still impressive, especially because it came with zero warning and it is only working with the population of Nevada. According to PokerScout’s data, cash game traffic on Ultimate Poker peaked at 136 players the first day and has gone up each day since. By May 6, peak traffic had increased almost two and a half times to 325 players. Ultimate Poker’s seven day average is 121 cash game players.
The interest in Ultimate Poker is even greater than the numbers would suggest, as the launch has not been free of hiccups. The most notable problem is that Verizon Wireless customers cannot play on the site yet, as Ultimate Poker requires that customers have a mobile phone in order to play. The mobile phone is used to triangulate a player’s location to make sure he is within state borders. The problem here is that Verizon has yet to allow Ultimate Poker to use its customers’ phones for that purpose, thus resulting in those with Verizon phones standing on the outside looking in. When Verizon customers can finally hop onboard, cash game traffic figures will jump.
In the top ten, PokerStars.fr rose from tenth to ninth in the traffic rankings, while Bodog moved up from eleventh to tenth. MPN (Microgaming) dropped to eleventh.
The Merge Gaming Network was the week’s biggest loser, as it split its traffic in two on May 1st, with PlayersOnly and Sportsbook on one network and Carbon Poker and Aced on the other. According to PokerScout, Carbon Poker and Aced look to have held on to around two-thirds of the players. Merge had been on a roll, with traffic increasing nine percent in the two weeks prior. It had made its way up to 14th in the traffic rankings, jumping the Revolution Gaming Network to become the second-largest network to accept U.S. customers. It is now down to a three-way tie for 17th, while Revolution is up to 13th place.
