Everest Poker Benefits from Full Tilt's Woes - 07-24-11

July 24 - Since the Alderney Gambling Control Commission suspended Full Tilt Poker's operating license three weeks ago, a number of online poker sites have reported a surge in traffic.

One such site is Everest Poker, which saw the highest rise in traffic numbers among rival online poker sites.

According the an independent poker monitor, in the past three weeks, Everest Poker saw a 62% increase in traffic since Full Tilt was asked to suspend its operations by the gambling jurisdiction. In the past week alone, the site saw an 11% increase in cash game activity.

Since Full Tilt Poker shut down operations, other sites have picked up its migrating players and gains were seen across the board.

Traffic at Party Poker grew by 46%, at Poker Stars by 15%, at iPoker Network by 23%, at 888 Poker by 21% and on the Microgaming Network by 9%.

The Merge Gaming Network saw a 6% rise since the Full Tilt shutdown.  The network recently announced that it would be accepting players from the United States once more, after blocking these players in fear that it could not keep up with the new sign ups.

9,300 Migrating Players

According to the poker monitor, 9,300 players have left Full Tilt Poker.  Of those, 5,500 of them (or 59%) have migrated to rival sites, while the rest seem to be playing a waiting game to see whether the online poker site will be bought out by investors and finally pay back the money they are owed.

Other sites that have benefited from the shutdown are PKR Poker, with a growth in traffic of 21%.

Less successful in attracting these migrating players were GTechG2's International Poker Network, which saw a mere rise of 3%, and the Entraction Network which actually saw its numbers drop 4%.