Poker News

Online poker traffic saw an increase of 5.2% last week according to PokerScout.com’s Weekly Online Poker Traffic Update. The site, which monitors real money cash games, reported a traffic increase for all of the top 10 sites and networks for the second week in a row.

PokerScout’s weekly report also revealed a rise in traffic over this time last year for the first time in a month. According to PokerScout’s ACES indicator, online poker traffic is growing at an annual rate of 1%. One month ago, traffic was declining at an annual rate of 4%.

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker room, maintained its stranglehold atop the rankings, averaging more than 27,000 cash game players on the site with a peak of 46,091. The site is currently running its flagship tournament series, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), which is surely attracting even more players in September. PokerStars has guaranteed more than $50,000,000 in prize money over 62 WCOOP events, including a $10,000,000 prize pool for the Main Event on Sept. 26.

Full Tilt Poker, PartyPoker, and iPoker rounded out the top four in the rankings, marking the 11th consecutive week without a change in the top four spots. Full Tilt, which came in at No. 2, saw a major boost in traffic during the week, showing a seven-day average of 17,400 with a peak of nearly 28,000 cash players.

“Full Tilt Poker gained an impressive 16% this week with the return of the Fast $50 promotion,” PokerScout said in its Monday report. “Like the overall market, Full Tilt has now returned to positive annual growth, but with the promotion coming to an end the site may be facing a struggle to stay in the black.”

The other top 10 sites and networks that saw increases last week were, in order of traffic, the Ongame Network, PokerStars.it, Microgaming Network, Cereus Network, International Poker Network, and PokerStars.fr. The Cereus Network moved up to sixth place ahead of PokerStars.it, but has since dropped to No. 8 as of Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the rankings, the Merge Gaming Network rose two notches to 19th, overtaking Ongame.fr and PKR. The Entraction Network came in at No. 11, while Pacific Poker landed at No. 15, Cake Poker at No. 19, and Bodog at No. 24.

PokerScout also increased its live tracking of the newly licensed French market with coverage of Winamax.fr last week. The site sits in 12th place worldwide, with a seven-day average of 1,380 real money ring game players and a peak of 3,254. PokerStars.fr leads all French sites and ranks 10th in the world, averaging 1,520 players through last week. Other French sites in the rankings include EverestPoker.fr (13th worldwide), Ongame.fr (20th), PartyPoker.fr (23rd), FullTiltPoker.fr (26th), and iPoker.fr (35th).

Compared to the same time a year ago, the most notable gainers in traffic were the Merge Gaming Network (82% increase), Entraction Network (10%), PokerStars (6%), and Full Tilt Poker (1%). The Cake Poker Network (down 57%), Everest Poker (52%), iPoker Network (38%), and PartyPoker (18%) have taken significant drops from a year ago.

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