Poker Stars Experiences Record Growth in 2008

There may be hundreds of online poker sites out there, but PokerStars is beginning to establish itself as online poker’s behemoth.

PokerStars now has more than 35 percent of the entire market share in terms of concurrent cash players, according to PokerScout.com owner Dan Stewart.

“That market share is the highest it’s ever been for PokerStars,” said Stewart, who established his site in 2006 to track the number of players playing at each poker site.

There is no easy way to track tournament players or the number of unique players for each site, but PokerScout has been tracking the number of concurrent players for more than two years.

Stewart explains the distinction between unique players and concurrent players.

“If someone’s playing 12 tables, they’ll get counted 12 times,” said Stewart. “That’s because there’s 12 seats filled, and that’s what matters most to the site.”

Online poker saw yet another rise in traffic this past year, with PokerStars leading the pack. PokerScout reports that total cash game traffic increased more than 14 percent in 2008, while PokerStars witnessed a 65 percent increase over 2007. This past week, PokerStars has seen an average of 22,800 cash game players at its cash game tables at any given moment.

PokerStars wasn’t the only site that had a successful year. Its biggest competitor, Full Tilt, also enjoyed a substantial growth in the number of concurrent players it had — up 39 percent over last year, Stewart said.

But not all sites had such a wonderful 2008.

“Basically, those two sites have been gobbling up the market share,” said Stewart. “It’s hurting the other sites.”

Cereus Network, comprised of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, fell 30 percent in 2008, according to PokerScout.

“I think they were down somewhat already before the scandal, before it gained wide publicity,” said Stewart, referencing the sites’ superuser scandals that were reported on CBS’ 60 Minutes. “It has continued to go down since then. So, it’s a little hard to tell exactly how much of that is due to the bad publicity.”

PartyPoker, once the premiere name in online poker, also had a rough year. Although it used to enjoy the kind of market share that PokerStars has now, PartyPoker has continued to slide without the luxury of American players at its site. PokerScout estimates that PartyPoker declined 26 percent in 2008.

Bodog and Cake Poker, both striving to become the next big name in online poker, had drastically different years. Bodog’s numbers fell 34 percent, while the Cake Poker Network surged 52 percent in terms of concurrent players.

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