Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008

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Online poker traffic surges in September

$30 million WCOOP drawing them in

By Christopher Hunt

It's not entirely unexpected given summer winding down, college kids back and procrastinating away first semester and the natural draw of the $30 million WCOOP.

Still, online poker operators must be pleased with the surge in traffic volume so far this month, as players are hitting the felt across the board - from the mega rooms to the small fry - in droves.

Whatever the underlying reason, traffic is up at virtually all rooms, led unsurprisingly by the two biggest players in the industry, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Perhaps most astonishing, however - despite the obvious pull of the $30 million World Championship of Online Poker bringing players in from across the globe - is just how big the increase is at Stars, a poker room that was already brimming with players at all hours of the day.

Traffic is up a remarkable 34% over August (which wasn't a shabby month in its own right), currently averaging 17,451 players per hour over the course of a day - more than twice Stars' closest competitor.

The 17,451 player average also makes Sept. the busiest month at Stars so far this year. Not surprisingly, that also includes its busiest day of the year, Sun. Sept. 14., when it averaged a jaw-dropping 20,496 players - fueled by the 3,467 players who plunked down the $1,050 for WCOOP Event 20, No-Limit Hold'em.

Peak times at Stars remain from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. ET, with numbers pushing an astronomical 30,000 at times. The same holds true for online poker overall, with peak traffic hours between 4-6 seeing almost 80,000 players online clicking their way to glory.

Close behind as far as September surges go is PokerStars' main traffic rival Full Tilt Poker, which is showing a strong 28% increase of its own this month to 7,890 players on average.

Without its main online tourney, the FTOPS, running, it's a massive increase - possibly driven by the legions of railbirds lining up to watch the phenomenal action among the game's best pros at the marquee $500/$1,000 RailHeaven table.

Railbirds crazy for Benyamine and the high-stakes Hold'em at Full Tilt.

As far as the rest of the online poker industry goes, the surge in traffic seems pretty much universal, with Titan Poker (up 2% to 5,025 players on average), Party Poker (up 1% to 4,205), Hollywood Poker (up 11% to 6,495) and Mansion Poker (up 12% to 4,200) all showing upswings.

Paradise Poker (up 20% to 1,701 players), DoylesRoom (up 12% to 1,656) and Pacific Poker (up 7% to 1,010) are on the climb as well.

To see the full online poker traffic report, jump to the MarketPulse traffic page, where you'll find a comprehensive breakdown by day, month and year including industry averages, traffic volume charts and all the major highlights from 2008.

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