Poker Pulse: How Does the Poker Traffic Look Like After the Black Friday?
The poker market is experiencing some massive shifting, following the FBI indictment of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and AP/UB. What's going on in terms of traffic now? Let's have a look and see how the other poker rooms are doing at the moment.
Online poker traffic - recent trend
| Online Poker Traffic | ||
| Poker Room | Traffic change | Status |
| PokerStars | -25% | No longer accepts US players |
| Full Tilt Poker | -48% | No longer accepts US players |
| Cereus Network | -39% | No longer accepts US players |
| PartyPoker | +9% | Not accepting US players |
| iPoker Network | +4% | Not accepting US players |
| Ongame Network | 0% | Not accepting US players |
| 888poker | +5% | Not accepting US players |
| PKR | +21% | Not accepting US players |
| Bodog Poker | +26% | Accepting US players |
| Cake Poker | +19% | Accepting US players |
| Data courtesy of PokerScout |
||
What do the numbers say?
 |
| Things don't look too well for the 3 operators |
Looking at the percentages, Full Tilt Poker has apparently suffered the most damage - almost half of its players are gone - mainly due to the fact that they were more US-oriented.
PokerStars lost "only" a quarter of its players, given the fact that it did not rely that much on the American market.
When will they bounce back up? That's something we will have to wait and see. It depends on their abilities to perform in the competitive European market, but also on how this market will react to these sudden shifts.
Who's winning now?
 |
| Hope for online poker is far from gone |
In the short term: The poker rooms that are still accepting players from the US, i.e. Bodog Poker and Cake Poker - after all, the American players will still need to play somewhere.
How long will this last? We have no idea, but it's probably a matter of time before these sites follow suit.
Another potential winner is the brick and mortar casino industry, who will also see a flock of players heading towards the live poker tables.
This increase might actually manifest in the mid-term as well, seeing as how their main online competitors are suddenly gone and it's uncertain whether they will be able to re-enter the market.
In the mid term: European poker rooms. They are recording an increase in their traffic and now have a good chance of catching up with the industry giants, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
The main example is PartyPoker, the former largest poker site, which has recorded a traffic boost of about 10% in the last few days. You might recall that the poker room withdrew from US following the UIGEA coming into effect, but this will most likely start paying off. This might also give them an edge if/when online poker is regulated in the US.
In the long term: Depends. If we take this as the beginning of poker regulation in the US, then the winners will be the poker players themselves, as they will finally be able to play the game they enjoy knowing that it is fully legalized. The millions of US players who are suddenly unable to play will certainly exercise a lot of pressure to have the legal framework up and running as soon as possible.
Bonus: Indictment act in audio
Our editor mattkaufman has released the full indictment act in audio form and you can download it below:
