Nevada Online Poker Review March 13, 2014: Potential for 6 Poker Sites

As we patiently await the first batch of iGaming revenue numbers from the state of Nevada (which should be coming in the very near future) let’s see what else is going in the Nevada online poker market.

This week we’ve got several interesting stories to cover including some perspective from 888 CEO Brian Mattingley on the interstate online poker deal between Nevada and Delaware.

We’ll also discuss how Locaid will play an integral part in the interstate compact with the addition of its player verification and geolocation services to the two states.

We’ll also take a look at the potential overcrowding on the horizon for Nevada, bring you the results of the latest weekly tournaments, take a look at traffic trends, and see what story is making the rounds at the Nevada rumor mill.

888’s Mattingley discusses interstate deal

888 CEO Brian Mattingley has been a very busy man when it comes to the emerging US poker market, and his company will likely be the biggest beneficiary of the new deal that will see Delaware and Nevada combine their player pools.

888 is the only operator in Delaware, where they have a monopoly, and already boasts one product in Nevada (WSOP.com) and are likely to launch several others this year. 888 is also very active in New Jersey as well—as I said, a very busy man.

Mattingley spoke about the new interstate compact with NorthJersey.com’s John Brennan and made some interesting comments; perhaps the most notable being that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that different companies (such as Ultimate Poker in Nevada and 888 in Delaware) could pool players.

While this is unlikely to be the case as software compatibility issues would surely arise, it shows how forward thinking many people are being in the burgeoning US industry.

Locaid teaming up with NV and DE

In other interstate online poker news, iGamingBusiness.com is reporting that Locaid has been selected to handle the geolocation duties for the new interstate online agreement between Nevada and Delaware.

The President and CEO of Locaid, Rip Gerber issued the following statement on his company being selected to handle the landmark duty, saying,

“We have been plumbing the mobile location systems with carriers, operators and regulators for years to reach this landmark accord, and we congratulate Nevada and Delaware in delivering a secure, customer-friendly geolocation compliance approach that can cross state lines. And if New Jersey joins the pact, our location service currently deployed in the Garden State will seamlessly integrate.”

Potential for 6 online operators in 2014

Nevada’s online poker market could become a wee bit crowded this year, as there is potentially three more operators looking to launch, which would bring the total number of online poker sites in the state up to six.

This was first reported by Chris Grove and was somewhat corroborated at Tuesday’s Massachusetts Internet Gambling Panel when Jim Barbee of the Nevada Gaming Control Board explained that 888’s WSOP.com online poker room is nearly finished with its field trial, which is expected to conclude at the end of March, and when they are officially approved they will be permitted to start launching some of the other poker sites along with their Nevada partners—most notably TI and Wynn.

Weekly Guaranteed Tournaments in Nevada

WSOP.com Sunday $15K Guaranteed

91 players registered for this week’s tournament, creating a prize-pool of $18,200. While it’s unconfirmed, it looks like Kathy Liebert may have finished 3rd in the tournament.

1. BShriever5 $5,187.00
2. Gatsby $3,003.00
3. pokerkat $1,820.00
4. IBEENGrindN $1,456.00
5. COOKIEBEAR $1,255.80
6. nevada $1,073.80
7. TimTebow $891.80
8. Sir1_Sack_U $618.80
9. MSAHM4 $491.40

In addition to the Sunday $15k Guaranteed, “AstroBoy” won the $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat in this weekend’s satellite tournament.

The $10K Guarantee tournament at Ultimate Poker

Attendance was way down this week at Ultimate Poker as just 88 players took part in the tournament, creating an overlay of over $1,800 in the $10k Guaranteed tournament. Tournament pro Brent Hanks made the final table, finishing 5th place, while one of Nevada’s top online tournament players “Butters” finished in 4th place.

1. The Agnostic $2,900
2. PokerPro $2,000
3. needs_a_boat $1,500
4. Butters $1,000
5. BHanks11 $800
6. JaminOnFaces $600
7. luckisreal $500
8. platinum $400
9. bulldog53 $300

Traffic trends in Nevada

Traffic ticked up ever so slightly over the past week in Nevada, with the three (one of which, Real Gaming, has average traffic of ZERO players) online poker sites in the state totaling average cash-game traffic of 200 players, about a 5% increase over last week’s tally.

It was Ultimate Poker that accounted for the gaining, as the site’s average traffic rose from 70 to 80 players. WSOP.com still has the lion’s share of the traffic with 120 players on average, while Real Gaming is struggling to gain any traction with average traffic of 0, and peak traffic of 2 players.

All traffic data courtesy of www.pokerscout.com.

The word on the street

UP making headlines

Earlier this week we shined the spotlight on Ultimate Poker, bringing you three separate stories related to their Nevada product. If you missed this article you can read it here, as we discussed the sites new freeplay promotion, the recently launch Strip Magic web series featuring UP Ambassador Antonio Esfandiari, as well as the company’s deal with Peppermill Casino.