Online Poker Industry Report July 15, 2008

After a nice little bounce last week the overall market market slid 4.11% WOW.  I can’t say I was too surprised with that as I thought last week’s numbers were a little high.  Not much in the way of sporting events to take the European customers offline but beautiful weather throughout Europe probably didn’t help out the online poker rooms. 

Despite or maybe because of Stars’ 2x promotion the cash game numbers were off 8.92% this week.  It should be noted that not only did they over their $1 million guaranteed doubled to $2 million but attracted 14,181 at $215 a pop to clear the guarantee more than comfortably.  Additionally, their $100,000 doubled to $200,000 maxed out at 25,000 players for a $250,000 prize pool.

As you watch the market on WOW basis it’s interesting to note rooms that have a tendency to post positive numbers one week and then negative numbers to following week.  Unfortunately for some the negative week is always greater than the positive week which seems to indicate a reload or some other type of bonus finishing up and players abandoning the site.  Bodog seems to be on the track. 

To my amazement not only does bad news not seem to phase Ultimate Bet but it continues to post good numbers.  UB has gained a spot on Svenska Spel which leaves Svenska tied with Absolute. 

It should be interesting to see how this dispute between PokerNews and Ultimate Bet plays out as PokerNews is one of the larger affiliates in the industry.  I’m not sure how much traffic they were sending to UB but it certainly can’t be a good thing to have someone as big as PokerNews pulling the plug on you. 

weekly-numbers

Source PokerSiteScout

No big wow promotions were announced this week. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have all of the large tourney stats this week as but the few I do have seem to show a healthy weekend.  Most sites that were offering overlays narrowed their losses this week.