Poker Numbers Up For February
02/08/2012 : BUMPER WEEK FOR ONLINE POKER
Latest Pokerscout numbers show an 11 percent surge in traffic across the main sites
The independent online poker monitor Pokerscout reports that last week saw a significant 11 percent rise in traffic across the top ten internet poker sites.
The biggest beneficiary of the boost in action was PokerStars, which saw traffic rise an impressive 18 percent. The site saw higher traffic all week thanks to its 75 billionth hand promotion, in which the final hand was dealt over the weekend, generating a peak of 75,887 cash game players.
Twenty other online poker sites also reported gains of 5 percent or more, a welcome relief from the depressed conditions of recent weeks.
Pokerscout reports that among the Top Twenty sites it monitors:
• Svenska Spel pulled ahead of Bodog to take over 15th place.
• PartyPoker.fr climbed two levels to 17th, pushing EverestPoker.fr and EverestPoker.com down to 18th and 19th, respectively.
With time starting to even out the overall loses in traffic since last April's Black Friday, the year-on-year numbers indicate a decrease in traffic of 24 percent.
The top three sites remain Pokerstars, PartyPoker and iPoker in that order, but among lesser networks there have been some impressive gains:
* Merge Gaming up 99 percent
* 888poker up 79 percent
* Bodog up 49 percent
* Winamax.fr up 39 percent
Full Tilt Poker and Cereus remain in the doldrums and Entraction (recently acquired by IGT and renamed) lags by 51 percent. GTechG2's International Poker Network is down 46 percent, and 3D poker provider PKR is 27 percent lower, with Ongame down 21 percent.
Although relatively small, Chico Poker – formerly Action Poker – continues to show exciting growth with a 280 percent improvement , doing rather better than Winning Poker (previously known as Yatahay) which is up 56 percent.
