Weekly Online Poker Traffic Update - Heated Battle for Fourth Spot

Very few things have changed in the realm of online poker traffic this week, with the top four sites in terms of having remained unchanged since our last report.

PokerStars continues to rule the roost in online poker, although its seven day player average dipped since the same time last week. The Isle Of Man-based network had an average of 19,500 players this week, while it had 22,500 players over the last week.

In the second place is 888poker, which has retained its spot as the top alternative poker network to PokerStars. The network’s seven day player average remains unchanged at 2400 players, and it still has a solid buffer over iPoker, which should see it remain in second place for the rest of the year.

Like 888poker, iPoker’s seven day player average also remains unchanged. The network currently boasts an average of 2000 players, which is still a far cry of the average of its second placed rival.

Although that may be the case, the fact that iPoker has held a 2000 player average for over two weeks is likely to be a major confidence booster for the network.

A three way battle for fourth place was occurring last week between Full Tilt, Bodog and PartyPoker as all those networks posted the exact same player average. That battle continues to rage in this week as neither network was able to gain any edge over the others in terms of greater player numbers.

All three of the networks actually posted a decrease in their player averages this week, with 1450 players for each network, down 50 players from the last week.

With no company able to get ahead of the other in the player rankings this week, it will be interesting to see if one of them is able to do the seemingly impossible and break away from the pack before Christmas.

There does appear to be a winner in the battle for fifth place, however, with Pokerstars.it increasing its average to 1,350 players this week, an increase of 100.

That is in contrast to the two companies it was tied with last week, Adjarabet and Winamax.fr. Adjarabet posted a decrease of 200 players this week to 1050 players, while Winamax.fr had a decrease of 50 players to see its seven day player average now sitting at 1200.

That now gives PokerStars.it a solid buffer in its new fifth place position, something which would only be comprised if one of the three four placed networks is able to break ahead of the others.

In the US, Party Borgata continues to lead the way in New Jersey with a seven day player average of 150, while WSOP’s online poker network also kept its spot as the top network in Nevada, having boasted an average of 160 players for the past seven day period.