Global Online Poker Traffic Down 13% Last Week

Recently, 2005 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem caused quite a stir in the poker community after declaring his opinion that “poker is dying and it’s dying because it’s no longer fun for people to play.” Unfortunately, the latest figures from PokerScout would seem to confirm some of the Australian pro’s concerns, with global online poker traffic recording a 13% decline last week.
Aside from Hachem’s gripes over a new generation of bum hunting, money oriented players who fail to positively promote the game, global online traffic post Black-Friday will continue to remain below that of previous years until such time as more U.S. states decide to regulate online poker.
On a more positive note, however, online poker traffic did manage a 1% gain compared to last week’s tally, with PokerStars around ten times the size of its nearest competitors 888poker (2nd) and iPoker (3rd). In fact, the online giant has such a huge player base that on February 23rd it will attempt to break its own Guinness world record for the biggest online poker tournament ever held, by holding a $1 buy-in event capped at 230,000 people, 5,000 more players than the present record.
Meanwhile, Full Tilt stays in 4th place, and PartyPoker now solely occupies the 5th spot after its tied rival PokerStars.it dropped down into 6th, just above PokerStars.es in 7th. Finally, Winamax took 8th place after dsiplacing Bodog/Bovada into 9th, while MPN retains 10th spot.
Focusing on the regulated US market, all indications show New Jersey may already have reached saturation point, like Nevada and Delaware, with growth now  tailing off and player traffic likely to remain steady. Party/Borgata still continues to control 41% of the market share, followed by WSOP.com with 34%, and 888’s All American Poker Network with 23%. Meanwhile, Ultimate remains adrift with but a small slither of New Jersey’s online poker pie, although it is hoping to find some traction soon after introducing a series of promotions, including Noverlay.