One week ago today was the last day that the poker world was running smoothly. Players were completely ignorant about what would happen the following day, which would later be known as pokers black Friday. The traffic was running strong at the big poker rooms such as PokerStars and Full Tilt and the American players at these sites were showing up and helping these sites be what they were, the top online poker rooms in the world. All that changed last Friday when the FBI forced PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and UB/Absolute Poker to close their doors to all American residents. I thought it would be interesting to look at the traffic stats of these top poker rooms a week later to see how drastically their traffic has declined, while also checking some other poker rooms that accept US players to see if the Americans are relocating to other online poker rooms.
I decided to take the average from Monday to Wednesday of each week (before and after) to get an idea of the change in traffic from one week to the next. I included the “Black Friday” rooms, as well as the top 2 rooms that already did not accept United States players and the top 2 rooms that still do accept US residents. These traffic stats were found at Poker Scout.
“Black Friday” Poker Rooms Traffic
PokerStars Peak Traffic
April 11th-13th: 46,769
April 18th- 20th: 37,598
Change: -9,171
Percentage: -19.61%
PokerStars is the biggest poker room online, but luckily for them they have a very strong international presence so although they lose a big chunk of their player base, their percentage decrease in traffic is much less than either Full Tilt’s or UB/Absolute Poker’s. PokerStars dropped almost 20% from last week, but remains the largest poker room online by far. In fact after last Friday’s event, PokerStars is now more than double the size of Full Tilt, which actually has really cemented PokerStars as a top destination for players (not including Americans of course).
Full Tilt Poker Peak Traffic
April 13th: 27,714
April 20th: 15,898
Change: -11,816
Percentage: -42.64%
Full Tilt’s traffic was hit hard by the loss of American residents. Full Tilt actually lost more players in the week than PokerStars did, which indicates that Full Tilt had a very large American player base. Full Tilt’s traffic stats are down over 40% and they will also be losing many of their sponsored pros, who are also American residents. This includes many of the high profile faces of the site, such as Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan who will not be able to play while living in the United States.
Cereus (UB/Absolute Poker) Peak Traffic
April 13th: 3,600
April 20th: 1,611
Change: -1,989
Percentage: -55.25%
The American player ban has likely hit the Cereus poker rooms of Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker the hardest. These rooms traffic decreased over 50% and they have become just another small room that does not accept United States players. I don’t expect many new sign ups to occur at UB or Absolute Poker in the near future.
Previous Non-American Room Traffic
I thought it would be interesting to see if other poker rooms that were already not accept American players had more or less traffic following the “Black Friday” events. Non-American players could be wary of the United States FBI attack on their previous poker site of choice and they may consider moving to a room that is not in trouble with the States.
April 11th – 13th average: 6,877
April 18th – 20th average: 7,756
Change: +879
Percentage: +12.78%
It seems like some non-American players who have accounts at both Party Poker and one of the “black Friday” rooms may be moving their poker play to Party. This could be because the rooms that are being indicted have lost the trust of players. Including ones who have not been directly affected (non-American residents). It will be interesting to see if Party Poker can gain some ground on PokerStars and Full Tilt in terms of online poker market share following this event.
iPoker Peak Traffic (Titan Poker and more)
April 11th – 13th average: 6731
April 18th – 20th average: 6863
Change: +132
Percentage: +1.96%
The iPoker traffic looks to have remained fairly constant from the previous week. It seems most non-american players who are wary of playing at PokerStars or Full Tilt have decided to move to Party Poker, but it will be interesting to see if the iPoker traffic ramps up in the next week. Titan is the most trusted room on the iPoker network. Download Titan Poker for an alternative to Full Tilt and PokerStars for non United States residents.
Remaining American Rooms Traffic
Merge Poker Peak Traffic (Carbon, Lock, Sportsbook and more)
April 11th – 13th average: 1,401
April 18th – 20th average: 1,985
Change: +584
Percentage: +41.68%
The Merge network saw some big gains from the previous week. 584 players at peak hours may not seem like a lot, but that indicates a 41.68% player base increase for Merge poker rooms. Merge seems to be one of the few remaining options for US players and those that do not want to give up poker for the time being will likely be setting up accounts at Merge. I suggest players looking to play at the Merge network sign up through Carbon Poker. Signing up through this link will earn you 35% rakeback at Carbon Poker, which is the biggest and most respected member of the Merge Poker room network.
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April 11th – 13th average: 1,147
April 18th – 20th average: 1,515
Change:+368
Percentage: +32.08%
Bodog is another room that is still accepting United States players and has had a 32% increase in play from the past week. In my opinion Bodog is the safest place for United States poker players to move their bankrolls to. Bodog has been in the business for many years and has somehow managed to stay out of trouble with the United States government for this entire time. Bodog is the biggest company and every player playing at your table is also from Bodog. It’s nice to only deal with one poker room, rather than knowing players can be coming from a variety of sites, which is the case with the Merge network. Bodog should see greater increases in traffic in the near future as more players realize they are a top option for not just poker, but also casino and sports betting.
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