According to the latest Pokerscout weekly assessment it’s been a slow week for online poker, with traffic declining some 0.06 percent.
The independent monitor nevertheless reported that six of the top 10 sites and networks saw modest week-over-week increases.
Surprisingly (in view of the WCOOP currently running) PokerStars traffic fell 2.4 percent after gaining 1.8 percent in the same week last year.
“The rest of the top 10 showed a modest 1.2 percent increase, also falling short of last year’s performance,” Pokerscouts reports, opining that if the current sluggishness continues for another week or two, it will be an ominous sign for online poker’s future growth prospects.
Also taking observers by surprise, the US-facing Merge Poker Network sustained a significant decline in traffic of 5 percent, effectively taking it out of the top ten network sites.
Still chasing Pokerstars in second place on the top twenty was Playtech’s iPoker Network.
Further down the rankings some changes took place, notably
? Microgaming Poker Network overtaking Winamax.fr and moving into eighth place.
? iPoker.it and Entraction Network taking over the 10th and 11th spots, respectively.
? GTechG2’s IPN moved up a notch to 14th, relegating Svenska Spel to the 15th slot.
? PartyPoker.fr and International.it improved to 19th and 20th places, respectively, pushing Ongame.fr out of the top 20.
Looking at the year-on-year picture, Pokerscout reports that Black Friday continues to cast a pall over the online poker industry, with online poker traffic (exc- Italy) down by 26 percent when compared with this time in 2010.
Those that have benefited from the DoJ’s decimation of the US online poker sector include:
888poker up 124 percent
Merge Gaming Network up 62 percent
Bodog 55 percent
iPoker Network 22 percent
Interestingly, two small networks appear to be doing reasonably well; the Action Poker Network is currently up by 113 percent, whilst Yatahay Network has increased its traffic by 40 percent.
Notable sites suffering serious declines include:
Full Tilt Poker down 100 percent
Cereus Network down 97 percent
International Poker Network (IPN) down 39 percent
Everest Poker down 31 percent
Everleaf Gaming Network down 29 percent