In its weekly report, PokerScout has reported an increase of about 1 percent in online poker traffic.
“Player counts dropped steeply on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, dipping even lower than last year’s holidays,” the site explains.
But that was expected, since Christmas was on a weekend this year, and because there was more travel reported over the holidays than in recent years.
The leading four Internet poker destinations in terms of traffic — PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, iPoker and PartyPoker, respectively —maintained their top positions. Although the gap between PokerStars and Full Tilt is a wide one, the gap between third and fourth place is relatively slim, with PartyPoker close to overtaking the iPoker Network (which includes Titan Poker, William Hill, Bet365, Paddy Power, and some two dozen other major online poker brands).
“According to PokerScout’s ACES indicator, online poker traffic is rising at an annual rate of 1%,” the report adds. That’s slower than in years past.
Big year-over-year winners were PokerStars (up 4 percent) and 888poker (up 17 percent).