Everest Poker : 62 percent increase in traffic over three weeks

Friday July 22,2011 : 62 percent increase in traffic over three weeks since Alderney suspension of Full Tilt's licence
 
An independent online poker site monitor continued its excellent finger-on-the-pulse study of the industry this week, pointing out that Everest Poker has done particularly well out of Full Tilt Poker's problems, increasing traffic by a massive 62 percent since FTP's licence was suspended three weeks ago by the Alderney Gaming Control Commission. Over the past week, Everest stats showed a surge of 11 percent in cash game activity alone.
 
Party Poker also racked up an 8 percent week-over-week increase, bring its total traffic gain to 46 percent since the FTP shutdown.
 
In a general sense, the online poker scene was quiet, recording only a 0.4 percent increase in total traffic; the fireworks were mainly around which operator was pulling in the displaced Full Tilt Poker players.
 
Rival sites reported gains since the Full Tilt shutdown:
 
Pokerstars was up 15 percent
 
PartyPoker up 46 percent
 
iPoker Network up 23 percent
 
Ongame Network rose 8 percent
 
888Poker gained 21 percent
 
Microgaming Network was up 9 percent
 
Merge Gaming Network improved 6 percent despite halting new signups to accommodate a massive earlier surge in traffic.
 
Entraction Network went down 4 percent
 
GTechG2's International Poker Network saw a mere 3 percent rise
 
Everest Poker has soared 62 percent
 
PKR has benefitted by 21 percent
 
Pokerscout estimates that Full Tilt has now hemorrhaged 9 300 players, with 5 500 of them – 59 percent – snapped up by competitors.
 
Market leader Pokerstars has been attracting more traffic, probably due to the imminent arrival of its 65 billionth hand and associated promos (see previous InfoPowa report).
 
Pokerscout also points out that the expansion of the Italian online gambling market that allows poker cash games will also give the industry a boost, and it will be monitoring developments in this new area.
 
Assessing the online poker segment on a comparative year-on-year basis, Pokerscout reports that the events of Black Friday have had a severe impact, with online poker traffic, excluding the dedicated French and Italian markets, slumping by 25 percent.
 
Despite this, there have been some gains year-on-year, including:
 
888poker – up a massive 132 percent
 
Merge Gaming Network up 87 percent
 
Bodog Poker up 48 percent
 
Party Poker up 44 percent
 
iPoker Network up 31 percent
 
Ongame Network up 14 percent
 
Notable losers are (obviously) Full Tilt Poker and the Cereus network, which have been crippled by Black Friday.
 
Surprisingly, the international Poker Network is down by a worrying 31 percent, and Pokerstars by 6 percent.