Poker Traffic Finally Up

04/10/2012 : POKER TRAFFIC UP AT LAST
 
After eight consecutive weeks of decline, things looked up last week
 
After eight straight weeks of declining traffic, the online poker business rose last week with a 2.8 percent rise.
 
Five of the top sites benefited from the surge with traffic increases of 5 percent or more, and nine of the ten top sites all reported improvements.
 
Fast-paced Zoom Poker continued to generate a high percentage of Pokerstars action, accounting for 25 percent of seated cash game players and nearly 50 percent of cash game hands dealt, whilst Playtech's iPoker network overtook Party Poker to claim second place in the top ten sites, 8 percent ahead of its arch rival, which inexplicably was one of the few sites that showed a decline.
 
PokerScout reports that year-on-year numbers show an overall decline in traffic (exc Italy) of 32 percent since Black Friday, with the top three sites currently:
 
PokerStars down 16 percent since Black Friday
 
iPoker Network up  6 percent
 
PartyPoker down  4 percent
 
Positive performers in the top ten included:
 
Merge Gaming Network up 72 percent
 
888poker up 54 percent
 
Bodog up 39 percent
 
Winamax.fr up 33 percent
 
Chico Poker Network, which has consistently delivered double or triple digit improvements in traffic, was again up 290 percent.
 
The International Poker Network (IPN) continued to languish, and was down 46 percent, along with Ongame Network, down 24 percent.