Global Online Poker Traffic 15% Lower Than Q1 2013
April 2, 2014 3:09 pmThere has been precious little positive news when it comes to this year’s global online poker traffic figures, and last week was no exception with cash game player numbers down 1% compared to the previous week. Worldwide online poker traffic has now fallen for seven consecutive weeks although, at least, the latest drop was less than the 3% and 4% declines reported over the past two weeks.
According to PokerScout’s latest report, PokerStars with a 7 day average of 21,000 cash game players continues to dominate the online poker industry, while 888poker (2,300), PartyPoker (2,000) and the ipoker network (2,000) occupy the next top positions. Full Tilt Poker remains in 5th place overall with 1,900 cash game players, followed by PokerStars.it with 1,600 players.
Last week, Bodog/Bovada reported 1% less players than the previous week, but still managed to move up into 7th place, in so doing relegating PokerStars.es into 8th place (1,450), representing the only change in positions for the top ten ranked poker sites in the industry.
With the first three months of 2014 now complete, global traffic figures are showing a significant 15% shrinkage compared to the first quarter of 2013. A huge part of the decline is apportioned to the loss of American players after Black-Friday. However, last Spring Nevada became the first US state to embrace regulated internet poker, and this week Nevada released its revenue figures for the first time in 10 months of operations.
The statistics show Nevada’s internet poker generated $824,000 in February, compared to $73,971 for Delaware, and the $10.3 million collected by New Jersey. Interestingly, Nevada’s online poker revenues represented just 9% of total gambling revenues collected by the whole of the state last month.
Overall, Nevada has attracted 65 players in a million to play at its three sites, squarely in line with other worldwide online poker markets, and last week had on average 160 players at any one time. WSOP had on average 95 cash game players over a seven-day period, 25% lower than the previous month, while Ultimate Poker Nevada had around 65 players, or a 10% drop compared to January.