PokerStars recovers from early-year traffic slump
Operator had seen cash game traffic fall 19% year-on-year but 75 billionth hand promotion helped numbers rebound.
A promotion for its 75 billionth hand has coincided with PokerStars’ recovery from poor cash game traffic figures at the start of 2012.
According to tracking site Pokerscout, the Isle of Man-based operator “ whose first ever CEO Gabi Campos left his role at the start of this month “ had seen its average seven-day liquidity drop as much as 19% year-on-year, although this week’s figures experienced a decline of just 2% compared to the corresponding period in 2011.
Dan Stewart of Pokerscout told eGaming Review that: “They’re not doing terribly, but we haven’t seen the usual pick-up in traffic at this time of year. This has been a little bit concerning. Has this been to do with the rake protests or something more market-driven?”
“[Stars] has been one of the bigger stories from the start of this year as they have been underperforming pretty seriously. When you border on 50% of the market you almost are the market,” Stewart added.
Following complaints about amendments to its rake structure, PokerStars had invited a selection of players to visit its Isle of Man headquarters and air their concerns. Those players returned last month having reached a compromise, with many expressing their satisfaction at the measures agreed upon.
However PokerStars’ performance in Italy, where it launched a real-money poker app for the iPhone and iPad last month, has been more promising.
While cash poker launched in Italy last summer, Stewart explained that the start of 2012 has seen that side of the market “really take off”, with cash game traffic for major dot.it sites and networks such as PokerStars and Microgame rising by as much as 30% since the beginning of the year.
PokerStars, which continues to sit atop Gaming Edge Consulting’s ‘Poker Edge’ scorecard, seems set to roll out a beta version of its Rush Poker equivalent in late February or early March.
A spokesman for PokerStars told eGR that the operator does not comment on traffic figures.