Online Poker Traffic Update

Cash game player traffic experienced a setback of 5% last week, a rather significant decrease that is likely party attributable to seasonal considerations.

Another reason may be Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that plague various sites from time to time. PokerScout reported that TonyBet, Unibet, Betfair and PokerStars all fell victim to such disturbances over the last week or so.

Looking at 2015 traffic totals, industry-leading PokerStars currently averages 18,500 ring game players. That's down a modest 2.6% from the 19,000 average when the year began.

Runner-up 888poker fell from 2,400 to 2,200 since January 1, an 8.3% drop in action. That figure is more in line with the year-on-year decline of 10% for the industry as a whole.

Polarizing

Third place in the global rankings is a dead heat between the iPoker Network and Bodog/Bovada, as both average 1,700 players in a seven-day span. That's a 15% decrease for iPoker over the past 3 and 1/2 months from 2,000 players previously, while Bodog has enjoyed a 21% increase in action from 1,400.

Speculation as to why Bodog jumped and iPoker faltered leads one to consider whether the anonymous table format at the former is perhaps becoming more popular. With regard to iPoker, the source based rake model implemented a couple months ago may be dragging the network down.

PokerStars.it (1,500) is the fifth most trafficked site worldwide, gaining 50 players since Jan. 1. Right behind in sixth is Full Tilt (1,400) after starting the year in fourth and averaging 1,800 ring game players. That's a loss of 22% for FTP.

Part Tilt

Full Tilt hopes to improve on the declining player traffic numbers and removed some tables from the lobby recently to further that goal. By deleting Adrenaline Rush and a bunch of other less popular options, the idea is to point players to the tables that are more active. Let's see if it works.

Partypoker (1,250) holds down seventh place, two notches and 250 players less than when 2015 arrived. The eighth and ninth slotted Winamax (1,050) and PokerStars.es (1,000) both began the year with a seven-day average of 1,200 players, which means the former has seen poker traffic decline 12.5%, and the latter 16.6%.

The top ten currently finds PokerStars.fr (850) taking the final spot, knocking Adjarabet (650) down to 12th. Dollaro (700) has moved up to 11th.

U.S. Non-regulated

Behind Bovada in the unregulated U.S. market is the Winning Poker Network (525) that has experienced a whopping 75% spike in traffic from the 300 on Jan 1. WPN gets the award for biggest increase thus far in 2015.

Two tournaments with prize pools of $1 million and more than four dozen qualifiers on schedule to send 50 players to the WSOP Main Event have been a huge boost for WPN this year. Also, the network CEO has fielded questions from players on Twitch during various events, which allows players to feel more secure when the poker rooms are represented by an actual person - as opposed to being just a website that answers customer queries via email or with an often uninformed support desk.

The Chico Poker Network (475) gained 25 players since ringing in the new year and now sits in third place among offshore U.S.-facing sites and networks. Conspicuously missing is the Merge Network and flagship skin Carbon Poker, which averaged 575 players 16 weeks ago. Carbon Poker has experienced a slowdown in cashouts as of late and has apparently dropped off the tracking radar of PokerScout.com.

The last of the unregulated sites include the Equity Poker Network (150) and Revolution (100). EPN has seen player traffic reduced 21% from 190, many of whom likely headed over to WPN. The Revolution Network has neither gained nor lost in 3 and 1/2/ months.

Regulated U.S. Market

WSOP.com in Nevada and its interstate partnership with the state of Delaware currently average 180 cash game players, leading the regulated industry. That's roughly a 20% boost if we add the player numbers that both had separately when the calendar turned to 2015.

Topping the New Jersey market is WSOP.com once again, this time due to its alliance with 888poker. A cash game average of 170 is right on the heels of the Nevada-Delaware pairing. The Borgata and Partypoker team in NJ host tables that typically see 110 seats filled, a 26.6% drop from 150 previously.