Liquidity Deal Paying Dividends In NJ iPoker Market

It has taken just over one week for the liquidity sharing deal announced by WSOP.com and 888Poker’s All American Poker Network (AAPN) to bear dividends, with both sites now overtaking Party Borgata as the state’s most popular online poker venues. Interestingly, while Party Borgata (NJ) is still showing roughly the same amount of cash game players that it had a week ago (160), traffic has soared at its two rivals’ sites, with WSOP.com up 50% to 190 cash players, and 888poker up 75% to 170, according to PokerScout.
The recent situation confirms the views stated by industry analysts concerning the benefits of shared player pools, as well as the optimism expressed by AAPN CEO David Licht a week ago, when he stated:
“This is an excellent step forward for us and should help in building a larger audience and player base for online poker in New Jersey. Shared liquidity will help create a better player experience, we hope will attract a diversity of players and begin to bring poker to a broader audience once again.”
Although currently just a partial pooling of their low stakes cash games, Sit-and-Go’s, and some MTT tournaments, the instant success of the agreement will likely see a more comprehensive networking of WSOP.com and 888Poker in the near future. In addition to being beneficial, liquidity sharing is increasingly being seen as a matter of necessity for developing and maintaining a healthy online poker landscape capable of enticing sufficient traffic to the online poker tables.
When online poker was first regulated in Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey, each operator seemed intent on going it alone and trying to carve out as big a slice of the online poker pie for themselves. Since then, it has become apparent poker is not quite as lucrative a proposition as casino games, making the decision to work together a lot more straightforward. As a report released recently by the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement recently, states:
“At the launch of Internet gaming in New Jersey, there was a perception that online poker would predominate over slots and other online games. This prediction has not been correct. From inception through November 30, 2014, poker accounts for only 25% of New Jersey’s Internet revenue while the remaining 75% consists of other authorized casino games.”