Weekly Online Poker Traffic Update

Posted by Lasse Hamar 21/02/12

Online poker traffic lost another 3% last week, the second straight week of losses after an early February surge. Player counts for nine of the top 10 sites and networks declined for the week.

Everleaf Gaming Network saw its traffic drop 16% after pulling out of the US market. The network departed the US after the Secret Service targeted Everleaf's payment processor. A decline of only 16% indicates that the network's reliance on the US market was even lower than that of PokerStars before Black Friday.

The next victim of the Feds is likely to be either Merge Gaming Network, Bodog / Bovada or Cake Poker Network, the three largest liquidity pools still open to US players. The timing of law enforcement action is always difficult to predict, but with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service all focused on the task, it seems likely that Merge, Bodog and Cake will come under increasingly heavy pressure to withdraw from the US.

Top 20 Movers

Merge Gaming Network climbed into eighth place, overtaking PokerStars.fr.

Bodog rose two notches to 14th, passing iPoker.it and EverestPoker.fr.
Year Over Year

The total worldwide online poker market remains under pressure from Black Friday and a global stagnation in poker's popularity. According to PokerScout's ACES indicator, online poker traffic (ex-Italy) has decreased by 28% in the last year.

Year-over-year changes for some individual sites and networks are given below. Results are for the main (.com) sites and networks unless stated otherwise.

Top three:

PokerStars 14%

PartyPoker 20%

iPoker Network 13%

Notable gainers:

Merge Gaming Network 85%

888poker 77%

Bodog 62%

Winamax.fr 44%

Notable decliners:

Full Tilt Poker 100%

Cereus Network 99%

International Poker Network (IPN) 49%

PKR 25%

Ongame Network 21%

Small but interesting:

Chico Poker Network (formerly Action Poker Network) up 312%