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Microgaming, Unibet Grow Despite Online Ring-Game Traffic Decline
- Updated: September 24, 2016
Real money online poker ring-game traffic declined by 18.5 percent from a seven-day moving average of 34,964 concurrent seats on Sept. 20, 2015 to 29,741 seats on Sept. 20, 2016 according to data provided by PokerScout via Poker Industry Pro.
Some of the decline can be attributed to regulation, with many poker rooms exiting several countries, thus decreasing the overall player base and player liquidity. Another reason is a shift in game play among recreational players to lottery-style sit-n-go format now offered by most major online poker networks.
Online Ring-Game Traffic Data
*Based off a seven-day moving average.
Decline in Ring-Game Traffic for the Top Seven
The top seven trafficked ring-game online poker networks all declined in traffic. Despite the declines, there has been no shake-up in the top three spots when comparing online ring-game traffic data year-over-year for PokerStars, 888poker, and Bodog retaining the top three spots.
Ring-game traffic at the world’s largest real-money online poker room, PokerStars, declined by 18.9 percent or just slightly more than the industry shrank as a whole. It makes sense that the reduction in ring-game traffic is similar to that of the entire market due to the huge market share enjoyed by the online poker room. PokerStars accounted for 42.2 percent of the real-money ring-game traffic as of Sept. 20, 2016 which is just a small fraction less than the 42.4 percent of the market it owned as of Sept. 20, 2016.
According to VP of Corporate Communications for Amaya Inc. and PokerStars Eric Hollreiser, PokerStars attributed some of its decline to its strategic shift from high-volume players to new and recreational ones with changes to the rewards program made at the beginning of the year.
“As you’re aware, we are shifting our emphasis from high-volume cash players to new and recreational players,” shared Hollreiser. “This was reflected in our Aug. 12, 2016 Amaya earnings call, where CEO Rafi Ashkenazi said, ‘The changes to our poker loyalty program on PokerStars are having the intended effect on our poker ecosystem as we reduced incentives for high-volume players and enhanced the experience for new and recreational players.’ As these high-volume players are almost, by definition, cash players, we expected to see a reduction in cash game traffic. During the same earnings call, Rafi also said ‘In the second quarter, tournaments continued to comprise the majority of our poker revenue, with that percentage increasing year-over-year as some customers shifted away from cash (game) tables and spent more time (and) bankroll on single and multi-table tournaments.’”
Hollreiser further shared with PokerNews that this shift to tournaments is especially evident with the popular lottery-style Spin & Go games, where players can potentially win huge amounts of cash in a matter of minutes.
“Cash games have always been the specialty of the serious and professional player, whereas tournaments, with the potential of a big payout for a small investment, are particularly attractive to newer and recreational players,” Hollreiser explained. “As we shift our focus to those players, it’s not surprising that there’s a reduction in cash game traffic with a corresponding increase in tournament (including Spin & Go) activity. This is simply a reflection of the changing nature of the game and the player demographic; it’s expected and actually a positive sign for the health of our game, community and industry.”
Even with this shift, PokerStars remains committed to ring games.
“To be sure, we remain committed to cash games and will be running promotions and innovating in this space in order to increase cash game volumes,” Hollreiser said. “You’ll see that in promotions, like the successful Card Hunt promotion recently.”
888poker witnessed its ring-game traffic declining by 14.7 percent. During 2016, the world’s second largest real money online poker room also revamped its loyalty program, before launching its version of a lottery-style game dubbed BLAST later in the year.
Just behind PokerStars and 888poker in terms of ring-game traffic is Bodog, who offers real-money games to players in Canada under its flagship brand name and gray …
