Noone can doubt the dynamic nature of the online gambling scene following network moves in recent weeks.
Internet poker sites have chopped and changed, sometimes with bewildering speed among the main networks, changing the balance of player liquidity and the rankings of the networks in the process.
Recent moves have not been kind to Cryptologic following its decision to quit as a standalone network and merge with Boss Media – GTech’s International Poker Network in March this year. Departures from Cryptologic’s poker venture have included Betsafe to Ongame; Peak Entertainment’s Sun Poker to Playtech’s iPoker network; Classic Poker and Littlewoods Poker to 888-Pacific Poker and the reported departure of William Hill in March to iPoker. Cryptologic will also be losing Playboy Poker, scheduled to close its virtual doors on January 29th.
Ongame lost Mansion to iPoker but gained Betsafe, whilst iPoker lost Unibet’s Carlos Poker and NoIQPoker to Microgaming Poker Network and Entraction respectively.
Cake picked up Gutshot Poker, and may (if unconfirmed reports are correct) be about to take Doyle’s Poker away from Microgaming.
Earlier this year, Devilfish Poker left the moribund Excapsa network for Entraction.
The independent poker statistical analysis website Pokerscout.com currently ranks the top ten websites according to average number of players per 24 hours as:
Poker Stars.com 23 200
Full Tilt Poker.com 9 900
iPoker 5 700
Party Poker 4 750
Ongame 3 100
Everest 2 550
Cereus (Absolute Poker + Ultimatebet) 2 050
IPN (Boss Media) 2 000
Entraction 1 420
Cake 1 360
Some of the leading poker networks continue to be hampered by management decisions not to accept US players, a situation which works to the competitive advantage of market leaders Poker Stars and Full Tilt, both of which welcome Americans.