Online Poker Traffic Up for Week, Year

Although the World Series of Poker is ongoing, the online card rooms was slightly up this week, helping to maintain the modest gains that we have had this year.

The news of the increase is particularly promising after several weeks of declines. For the first time ever, year-to-date gains recently dipped into the single digits, with most sites actually losing traffic as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker buoy the market.

The fact that traffic increased when so many high-volume players were busy playing at the WSOP is a cause for optimism. Even though the increase was low, the fact that it wasn’t a decrease during the biggest live event of the year pleased analysts.

Six of the top ten sites saw increases for the week. PartyPoker managed to hold its lead over the iPoker Network, although the difference between the two online poker giants is a mere half a percent.

The Cereus Network has overcome its bad publicity of the past month, as it regained the sixth spot, pushing IPN back into seventh place. The Merge Gaming Network also continued its climb, moving past Betfair to take the 15th spot.

The market is up 8 percent for the year, with Merge, PokerStars and Full Tilt leading the way with large gains. The Ipoker, PacificPoker, Cake Poker Network, Svenska, and PartyPoker have all posted double-digit losses, but each looks to rebound as the poker industry tries to recover its momentum.