World Series of Poker Continues To Drive WSOP.com Traffic

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Friday, July 11th, 2014 | Written by Shane Larson

The 2014 WSOP got underway at the end of May at the Rio All-Suite Hotel in Las Vegas, and the competition is currently running its 65th and final event of the Series, the showcase $10k Main Event which this year has a guaranteed first place prize of $10 million.

Over the past seven weeks, there has also been witnessed a dramatic improvement in Nevada’s online poker industry, notably its WSOP.com website, which has seen traffic skyrocket to 160 cash game players according to PokerScout, raising the question whether the World Series of Poker itself can help grow the country’s interest in poker, and drive a new legion of players online.

WSOP.com now USA’s top poker site

Prior to the 2014 WSOP kicking-off, WSOP.com Nevada was the country’s third highest ranked online poker room, but within just one week the site had successfully overtaken its nearest rivals to claim top spot. The latest PokerScout figures show WSOP.com Nevada with an average of 160 cash game players over a seven-day period, followed by Party Borgata (NJ) with 140 players, and WSOP (NJ) with 120. The feat is even more impressive when one considers the vast population differences between Nevada (2.76m) and New Jersey (8.86m).

With thousands of potential customers visiting Las Vegas for the WSOP and signing up for online accounts in order to play cash games or satellite their way through to live tournaments, the increase in traffic has quickly translated into higher revenues and in May Nevada’s three online poker rooms generated the state’s second highest monthly tally of 2014 at $862,000, up 9% compared to the $792,000 collected in April. The increase is also expected to be significantly higher when June and July’s results are eventually released.

Nevada implemented successful marketing campaign

From the beginning industry analysts have expounded the need to implement well organized marketing campaigns, and the World Series Of Poker and WSOP.com’s recent cross-promotional campaign has clearly proven exceptional in increasing player awareness and attracting new players to the site.

One example of this was the 25 Seat Main Event $215 satellites which ran at WSOP.com, and managed to draw in 1,235 players, just $3,000 short of the 1,250 players needed in order to reach the $250,000 guarantee. Following announcement of the encouraging figures, poker analyst known on twitter as tizzle, wrote:

“1235 players in the @WSOPcom ME Scramble. 187 cash game players. Maybe the NV problem isn’t liquidity, its really the lack of a product?”

The lesson that can be drawn from WSOP.com’s 25 Seat Main Event promotion is clear, namely that a lot of players are willing to go to the effort of signing up for new accounts and depositing money online at regulated US poker sites if the reward is a compelling one. The reward need not be just a money one, either, as at the end of the day the WSOP Main Event Scramble had but a slender overlay.

WSOP Main Event numbers up

The WSOP main event is often viewed as a benchmark to determine the state of poker’s popularity in the US. This year numbers for the main event reached 6,683, up from 6,352 a year earlier, giving some optimists cause to believe poker may soon see a resurgence stateside. This view, however, has been dismissed in article published in Off Shore Gaming Association (OSGA), which stated:

“Around half of the participants are the same ones that play every year. $10,000 is not a lot of money to many of them and they will always be participating in hopes of riches and fame. The rest are wannabes who probably avoid poker most of the time but saved up the WSOP Main Event entry fee and hope to cash the guaranteed $10 million.”

Will online interest expand beyond 2014 WSOP?

Although WSOP.com is currently experiencing a surge in business, its natural to assume that traffic is likely to take a dive once the 45th annual World Series Of Poker comes to an end next week in Las Vegas. In addition, the popularity currently being enjoyed by WSOP.com has not extended to Nevada’s other two online poker rooms, Station Casinos’ Ultimate Poker and the South Point’s Real Gaming, which have not noted any discernible rise in traffic. The same applies to the USA’s other regulated poker websites in Delaware and New Jersey.

So in answer to whether the WSOP could help provide a turnaround in the industry as a whole, the OSGA had this comment to make: “Now after Black Friday and the UIGEA poker has fallen out of favor in the United States and today’s younger generation seems to have lost interest. They seem much more interested in playing computer war games and taking selfies than sitting down for hours and playing cards. At some point poker interest will pick up again but I can’t tell you when that will be but one thing I can tell you is it won’t be as a result of the WSOP.”