WSOP/888 Overtakes PokerStars in New Jersey's iPoker Market

One week ago, WSOP/888 overtook PokerStars as New Jersey’s most popular poker operator, and according to the latest statistics fromPokerScout the site currently has a 7-day average of 120 cash game players, compared to PokerStars with 110 players. The figure is particularly important considering around 70% of an iPoker site’s revenues are derived from its ring games.
While the situation is likely due to a successful promotional campaign run by 888/WSOP.com during the recent 2016 WSOP in Las Vegas, analysts had still expected PokerStars to have held the upper ground during online poker’s traditionally quiet summer period.
Furthermore, New Jersey’s online poker revenues in June were only 7.3% higher at $1.97 million compared to the previous year, a figure that was expected to have been significantly higher seeing that back then PokerStars had still to enter the Garden State. From that tally, the PokerStars/Resorts partnership accounted for $778k of revenues, down from its April peak of $1.18m, and representing its lowest point since launching on March 21.
Before PokerStars was granted a gaming license to operate in New Jersey, there had been concerns that the operator would cannibalize customers from the state’s other operators, namely Caesars Interactive NJ (888/WSOP), and Borgata (Party Poker/Pala Interactive). At that time, New Jersey had around 320 cash players over a week period, but it is currently showing 295 cash players, with WSOP/888 down from 190 players to 120, and Party Poker/Pala down from 130 players to just 65.
PokerStars traditionally holds the top spot in all the markets where it operates, although in France the site is still second to French brand Winamax. Similarly, WSOP/888’s current pole position lead in New Jersey will provide encouragement to other poker operators who have expressed concern that PokerStars could also come to dominate the USA’s iPoker landscape. As a result, analysts will now eagerly be anticipating the next set of iPoker revenue figures when they are released by New Jersey for July.