FULL TILT PLAYER DEPARTURES ESTIMATED AT 9,300

Wednesday July 13, 2011 : Latest Pokerscout report identifies beneficiaries from FTP troubles
 
The latest weekly report from the independent online poker operator monitor Pokerscout shows that troubled operator Full Tilt Poker has lost over half its players – some 9,300 – with around 5,000 of them now playing on rival sites such as Bodog Poker.
 
Online poker was boosted by players returning home from the World Series of Poker, Pokerscout noted. Total traffic climbed 3.4 percent for the week, with eight of the top 10 sites and networks seeing gains.
 
The suspension of Full Tilt's licence by the Alderney regulator resulted in displaced European players finding new poker homes from the end of June, with Full Tilt's competitors continuing to make major promotional offers designed to lure affected players…and nearly all of the top FTP rivals have benefited from Full Tilt's woes.
 
Pokerscout's latest stats show that Pokerstars remains the biggest venue and has benefitted by some 17 percent, with Bwin.digital entertainment's Party Poker now taking over the second place for the first time since 2007 and benefitting by a massive 35 percent following the Full Tilt Poker shutdown.
 
Playtech's iPoker network and 888Poker are up 24 percent and 20 percent respectively, whilst Microgaming Poker Network has experienced increased traction and is up 7 percent – rising from 11th to eighth in the popularity rankings.
 
Merge, which initially made massive gains but has had to put the brakes on to catch up administratively has achieved little further, and Entraction is up just 2 percent following its acquisition by an IGT subsidiary.
 
GTechG2 subsidiary Boss Media's International Poker Network is up 14 percent, but Everest Poker has shown one of the largest gains – up 46 percent, just ahead of Cake Poker which has enjoyed 40 percent more traffic.