NJ Online Gaming Scoop: Cash Game And Tournament Traffic For The Week of Jan. 23

January 31, 2018
NJ Online Gaming Scoop: Cash Game And Tournament Traffic For The Week of Jan. 23

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The overall online poker cash game traffic in New Jersey fell again the past week. While the drop was relatively small, it would have been a lot worse had WSOP/888 not bounced back from an extremely poor showing during the previous week.

It can be alarming to see three weeks of declining traffic numbers in a row, but a double-digit increase in the average peak number is cause for some mild optimism.

As we approach February, the 2018 Classic Poker Series to be run by 888poker will be offering an $800,000 guaranteed prize pool for the 17-day series. It is hopeful that those 57 events, plus a historical increase in traffic during the period, will drive the numbers in a positive direction in the coming month.

The New Jersey Sunday Majors were all back on their regular schedule during the past week, and you can expect them to remain as is until the first Sunday of the Classic Poker Series on Feb. 11.

While the prize pools of all four hovered around their guarantees, only PokerStars and partypoker exceeded them. This is good news for PokerStars after coming off their big tournament series, where you might expect to see a decline in entrants.

While WSOP/888 failed to reach its guarantee again this week, they did gain some ground by only having an overlay of $1,200. They are surely counting on a big turnout for the Classic Poker Series to give their tournament traffic a much-needed shot in the arm.

Here is US Poker’s detailed weekly look back at the cash game and tournament trends in the New Jersey online poker market.

New Jersey’s online poker operators

New Jersey has seven online poker sites operating on four separate networks.

During the week of January 23 – January 29, New Jersey online poker sites averaged 253 cash game players, a loss of 2.5 percent over the previous week.

Peak traffic numbers were around 637 players, which was a very healthy 14.3 percent increase from the previous week.

Here’s how those players are distributed across the four online poker networks.

*Cash game traffic data provided by PokerScout.com. Collected on January 30, 2017.

Borgata-MGM-partypoker

Seven-day rolling cash game traffic data:

  • Seven-day rolling peak traffic average: 179 cash game players – down 2.4 percent compared to the previous seven days

WSOP-888

Seven-day rolling cash game traffic data:

  • Seven-day rolling peak traffic average: 120 cash game players –down 51.9 percent compared to the previous seven days

PokerStars NJ

Seven-day rolling cash game traffic data:

  • Seven-day rolling peak traffic average: 196 cash game players – up 110.3 percent compared to the previous seven days

Pala Poker

  • Platform provider: Pala
  • Sites in network: PalaPoker

Seven-day rolling cash game traffic data:

  • Seven-day rolling peak traffic average: 7 cash game players. There was no data available from last week to compare.

Evaluating cash game traffic trends

After a pretty dismal week for WSOP/888, they were able to bounce back in a big way and on a few days during the week even came within a handful of players of matching PokerStars numbers.

Traffic started out a bit on the slower side this week but a nice surge of traffic mid-week and a strong showing at the end of the week helped to keep the numbers steady. While the overall traffic declined week-over-week with a drop of 2.5%, the overall number of players during peak traffic increased by 14.3%.

The WSOP/888 network had the biggest increase in traffic this week with PokerStars also posting a positive number. PokerStars has been relatively consistent as of late and their growth over the past few weeks must be giving the poker room a positive outlook after a less-than-stellar 2017.

Tournament Report: A look at the Sunday Majors

All of the major online poker networks host a signature Sunday tournament:

  • The Borgata/partypoker/MGM online poker network offers a $40,000 guarantee tournament. The tournament has a $215 buy-in.
  • The WSOP.com and 888poker network also host a $215 buy-in, $40,000 guaranteed tournament dubbed “The Warrior.”
  • PokerStars NJ hosts the Sunday Special, a $200 buy-in with a guarantee of $45,000.
  • Pala Poker hosts the $2,000 Guaranteed Pala Mega with a buy-in of $30.

Major tournament results for January 28, 2018

After the successful conclusion of the Winter Series, PokerStars is back to its regularly scheduled Sunday Major that includes a $45,000 guarantee.

All four Sunday majors hovered around their guarantees. PokerStars and partypoker both exceeded their guarantees, while WSOP/888 and Pala Poker each posted an overlay.

As we’ve mentioned in previous reports, we are looking for a growth in prize pools and tournament fields that have historically come mid- to late-February.

With the New Jersey Classic Poker Series coming to WSOP/888 in February, it certainly seems that history will repeat itself.

Here’s a look at the total number of entries for the largest tournament held on each of the three main online poker networks in New Jersey:

And here’s a look at the total prize-pool for each tournament:

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