WSOP.com’s real money online poker soft launch in the state of Nevada on 19th September was a highly anticipated one but numbers received from Poker Scout, an independent cash game monitoring site point to a slow response. It was expected that WSOP.com would quickly become the dominant player moving ahead of the already existing Ultimate Poker but that hasn’t happened.
WSOP.com had the bigger and better name and the software backing of 888 but poker traffic on opening day maxed at 113 players. Comparing this to Ultimate Poker which debuted in April and their traffic maxed at 136 players. If we compare the subsequent days then, WSOP.com’s traffic dipped to 102 on Friday and only 77 on Saturday. It then peaked to 152 which was a good rebound. But if the pages are turned back to Ultimate Poker’s launch then the Sunday comparison shows a peak traffic of 250 for them.
The slow response could be due to the soft launch with little advertisement by WSOP.com. Despite them having a stable software from 888, numbers remain low. In contrast Ultimate Poker has a mediocre software and a name similar to UltimateBet, the controversial site that shut down previously but very good publicity of being the first one.
Though Nevada is a small state but it is expected that the poker traffic will go up on the whole. Whether WSOP.com benefits from the same or Ultimate Poker gets a bigger slice or a new online poker room pops up and grabs the share waits to be seen. But poker pundits believe that the total market size of poker players in Nevada will surely go up by the entry of WSOP.com in the online poker realm. It will also ensure that Ultimate Poker dresses up its otherwise mediocre software.
1 Comment
I have heard that the poker software of wsop is quite nice and very similar to 888. They will definitely get a better response.