Nevada Traffic Report: WSOP.com and Ultimate Poker Suffer the Effects of Seasonal Depression

Traditionally, the arrival of spring leads to a significant drop in worldwide online poker traffic. The year 2014 was no exception.

The online poker industry in Nevada, which is almost a year old, did not manage to avoid the seasonal decline. It showed slight losses in both cash-game and tournament traffic.

Nevertheless, Nevada seems poised for a turnaround due to the upcoming World Series of Poker and a shared liquidity agreement with Delaware. But, it’s important to remember that things aren’t always as they seem.

In this first installment of Nevada Traffic Report, we delve into the latest traffic trends in the regulated gaming market of Silver State. We also provide our own perspective on the future of this industry.

Cash-game volume dips across the board

After bouncing back from a five-month low in late March, WSOP.com briefly regained momentum, only to falter once more. Ultimate Poker experienced a similar downfall.

Below are the 7-day averages for cash-games at Nevada’s three regulated poker sites, as of April 14th:

·         WSOP.com: 94

·         Ultimate Poker: 65

·         Real Gaming: 0

Traffic on WSOP.com has dropped nearly 8 percent since April 1st, but it is still marginally better than its lowest point of 89 on March 23rd.

Ultimate continues its seemingly infinite decline, reaching its lowest levels since its initial launch in late April.

PokerScout, as reported by PokerFuse Pro, states that Real Gaming has not managed to attract any traffic. This is mainly due to the site’s complete lack of marketing, but also partly due to the small population of Nevada. The population is barely enough to support three online poker sites, not to mention the potential six or more sites that Nevada could have by the end of the year.

Nevada’s performance in the global iPoker marketplace is considerably below average when compared to international trends. While cash-game traffic worldwide remained stable from April 1st to April 14th, Nevada saw a 6.4 percent decline in traffic.

Majors boast deflated numbers

This week’s Majors showed significant drops in all areas. The largest Major of the week, WSOP’s $15k Guarantee, attracted only 93 participants. Though the $15k still exceeded its guarantee by $3,600, the weekly turnouts were down by 15.5 percent.

Last week, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) awarded a seat to the Main Event to a player known as Don_Key. The seat was won in a $200 + $15 qualifier in which only 34 players participated, resulting in a $3,200 overlay.

The $10,000 Sunday event hosted by Ultimate Poker attracted around 90 participants, similar to the previous week. However, the site failed to make a profit, even with tournament fees included, and had to pay an extra $1,000 from its own funds. The last time Ultimate Poker’s major event saw over 100 participants was on March 31st.

Is help on the way?

The shared liquidity agreement with Delaware is expected to slightly increase the cash-game volume on sites based in Nevada by late summer. The increase is anticipated to be modest, given that Delaware has a population of less than one million. Moreover, traffic on its regulated poker sites has so far been almost negligible.

Alternatively, it’s highly likely that more Delaware patrons will pay attention to online poker once a bigger player pool becomes accessible.

The forthcoming WSOP is also expected to boost online poker traffic, with hordes of professional and recreational poker players flocking to the Rio for a six-week period starting in late May.

However, considering the high level of activity at Las Vegas’ brick-and-mortar casinos, it’s difficult to imagine many players would prefer to retire to their rooms to play online, particularly with an abundance of enticing live cash games in progress.

Nevada’s best chance to maintain or gain relevance could arguably be forming an interstate compact with New Jersey. New Jersey seems ready and capable to share liquidity with Nevada and Delaware by the end of 2014, due to several factors, including declining traffic numbers.

If this occurs, it could persuade more states to participate, leading to increased interstate liquidity sharing opportunities in Nevada. However, without doubt, Nevada is confronted with a challenging journey ahead.