2008
September 1, 2008
-- A problem with the Merge Gaming Network player counts since August 26 has been fixed.
August 22, 2008
-- Our Merge Gaming Network coverage has been switched from Poker.com to CarbonPoker.
August 20, 2008
-- Our Microgaming Network coverage has been switched from Nine.com to DoylesRoom.
August 11, 2008
-- A problem with counting some of the deep stack no limit tables at PartyPoker has been fixed.
July 20, 2008
-- The Austrian government-sponsored site win2day.at has been added to our coverage.
July 19, 2008
-- A problem with the player counts at World Poker Exchange since July 17 has been fixed.
July 11, 2008
-- A problem with the player counts at UltimateBet since July 7 has been fixed.
July 9, 2008
-- A problem with the player counts at World Poker Exchange since July 4 has been fixed.
June 11, 2008
-- We have switched our Ongame network coverage from bwin to EuroPoker. As of June 2, 2008, bwin is semi-independent
from the Ongame network, featuring its own low stakes tables. EuroPoker has been chosen as a better indicator of
traffic on the rest of the network.
June 1, 2008
-- A problem with the player counts at Svenska Spel since May 28 has been fixed.
May 11, 2008
-- A problem with the player counts at Action Poker Network since April 22 has been fixed.
April 8, 2008
-- A problem with counting full 10-handed Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo tables at PokerStars has been fixed.
April 6, 2008
-- A slight player undercount problem with Ladbrokes has been fixed.
March 26, 2008
-- A slight player undercount problem with CakePoker has been fixed.
February 7, 2008
-- 24hNetwork (formerly the B2B Network) has changed names once again and is now listed as Entraction Network.
2007
Ongame software update reveals strong network growth (December 16, 2007)
A major software upgrade recently released by Ongame reveals just how quickly the network has been
growing in recent months.
Like much of the online poker industry, the Ongame network has
been experiencing a seasonal surge in traffic with the onset of autumn and cold weather. From mid-October on, the
increased traffic was apparently more than the old client software could handle, leading to
serious lag and freezes when viewing the lobby. This made it difficult to get
an accurate player count, as shown in the graph below (red line).
The new client software seems more capable of handling the increased traffic, resulting
in more accurate player counts (green line). The Ongame network is now seen to be averaging 4200 real
money ring game players, an impressive increase of 35% from early October.
December 3, 2007
-- PKR has been added to our coverage.
November 8, 2007
-- Everleaf Gaming Network has been added to our coverage.
August 19, 2007
-- Betfair has been added to our coverage
June 29, 2007
-- Sites are now ranked according to 7-day average player counts
June 14, 2007
-- A recent problem with Merge Gaming Network player counts has
been fixed.
CryptoLogic Network Update (June 7, 2007)
At the end of May, 2007,
CryptoLogic made certain changes to their network configuration
which allow a different selection of games to be made available on
different sites. Those changes have affected the traffic we
are showing for CryptoLogic.
There
are now micro-limit games which are offered by about half of the
sites on the network. To capture the new limits, we have switched our CryptoLogic
coverage over to Betsafe.
Also, with the new
network configuration, William Hill is now treated as a unique site
on the network. There are some tables which are available only on
William Hill and nowhere else on the network. Likewise, there are
some tables which are available everywhere on the network except
William Hill, and there are other tables which are shared across the
entire network including William Hill.
As with every network, our traffic data on CryptoLogic comes from a
single site (in this case Betsafe). However, with the new
fragmented network configuration, there is no longer any single site
that shows all of the tables running on the entire CryptoLogic
network. Therefore, from a financial perspective (though not
necessarily from a player's perspective), the CryptoLogic network
has more poker traffic than shown here. We currently have no
estimate for the amount of traffic that is unique to William Hill,
but it is significant and it most likely accounts for at least a
substantial portion of the recent decrease in traffic at the
CryptoLogic network.
June 6, 2007
-- Skill Games Network has been removed from our coverage for
lack of traffic.
May 24, 2007
-- Paradise Poker has joined the International Poker Network (aka Boss
Media), and will no longer be covered as a independent poker room.
Everest Poker Update (April 29, 2007)
On Saturday, April 28, Everest Poker released a
major software update. Besides having a new look and feel, the
new software offers beginners' tables for the first time. At
$0.02 and $0.04 levels, these tables are the lowest stakes offered
by Everest. Beginners' tables will be available to players for
90 days after they sign up at Everest Poker.
Since many Everest players were already playing
at $0.02 and $0.04 stakes, and all tables at those stakes have now
been converted to beginners' tables, Everest has instituted a grace
period of 30 days during which the beginners' tables are still
available to everyone. Once the grace period expires, the
lowest stakes players will have to move up to the $0.10 level or
higher in order to keep playing for real money.
In keeping with our goal of helping the
average player find the games they want to play, PokerSiteScout has
a longstanding policy of not counting restricted access tables,
including beginners' tables. However, since the new tables are
currently open to everyone, they are included in our count.
This is expected to end on approximately May 28, when the 30-day
grace period expires.
Casual players often tend to play the lowest
stakes games available, which makes the beginners' tables very
popular. As of this writing, 15-20% of the cash game players
on Everest are playing at beginners' tables. (In contrast, the
share of PartyPoker traffic occupied by beginners' tables is
approximately 1 to 2%, as those tables are actually restricted to
new players.)
It remains to be seen what will happen to the
lowest stakes players at Everest when their tables of choice are no
longer available. Real money player counts may decrease
somewhat as players seek micro-limit games elsewhere or revert to
play-money games. However, the remaining players will have a
higher average value to Everest due to increased rake at the
higher-stakes tables.
April 11, 2007
-- The Tribeca network is now defunct and has been removed from our
coverage. Many of the Tribeca sites left some time ago in the
planned merger with iPoker. Among the few remaining sites was
DoylesRoom, which left Tribeca today to join the Microgaming network.
With the departure of DoylesRoom and several other sites, there is no
discernable traffic on the Tribeca network, and our coverage has
therefore been discontinued.
March 24, 2007
-- The Swedish government-run poker site Svenska Spel has been added to
our coverage
March 18, 2007
-- We have changed our source of data for the Ongame Network from
PokerRoom to bwin. PokerRoom is no longer the dominant site on the
network that it once was, and there are many low-limit games which are
available throughout the network except on PokerRoom. With the
switch to bwin, those low-limit games are now included in our player
counts, which have increased substantially as a result.
March 7, 2007
-- Poker.com is now listed under its new network name, Merge Gaming
Network
February 24, 2007
-- Cake Poker Network has been added to our coverage
February 23, 2007
-- The Tain network has merged into the iPoker Network
January 24, 2007
-- Poker.com has been added to our coverage
January 9, 2007
-- A correction has been made to our Everest Poker player counts
2006
December 27, 2006
-- Skill Games Network has been added to our coverage
November 6, 2006
-- PokerStars update: Table counting has been corrected to allow
for the new post-legislation record high numbers. As a result,
peak player counts will be higher.
October 23, 2006
-- WPX update: A problem with reading short-handed tables at the
World Poker Exchange has now been resolved, which will increase the
player counts.
October 9, 2006
--
Microgaming update: Our data for the Microgaming network now comes from
BetHoldem. We have also added support for the new foreign-language
tables. As a result, player counts for Microgaming have increased.
October 8, 2006
--
Pokershare is leaving the Tain network and moving to the Microgaming
network. Our data for the Tain network now comes from
Eurolinx Poker.
September 17, 2006
--
We're proud to announce the addition of the Action Poker
Network to our coverage. We now have live traffic data for 20
of the largest poker sites and networks on the Internet!
August 21, 2006
--
PokerRoom player counts now include "non-exclusive" private tables
August 16, 2006
--
PokerStars has added Razz, HORSE and HOSE cash games. Check the
PokerStars detail page to see how
the action is shaping up.
July 26, 2006
--
We've initiated coverage of the International Poker Network (aka Boss Media)
July 20, 2006
-- The PrimaPoker network has been renamed as the
Microgaming Poker Network
July 15, 2006
-- Our coverage has expanded once again to include the
B2B Poker Network
June 24, 2006 --
Our coverage of Everest Poker has
begun!
May 26, 2006
-- Coverage of Bodog Poker begins
May 15, 2006 --
The World Poker Exchange is now the 15th site
covered by PokerSiteScout
May 14, 2006 --
The Tain Poker Network has
been added to the list. We now cover 14 sites, and the list just
keeps growing!
May 11, 2006 -- New ranking method! Sites are now
ranked according to 24 hour peak players.
May 9, 2006 -- PokerSiteScout now covers 13 major poker
rooms with the addition of the iPoker Network
May 4, 2006 -- Ladbrokes joins the list as the 12th
major poker site with live statistics on PokerSiteScout
May 1, 2006 -- PokerRoom (Ongame) coverage begins. Live
stats are now provided for 11 major poker rooms.
April 27, 2006 -- Coverage of
Absolute Poker begins
April 26, 2006 -- PokerSiteScout launches, providing
traffic statistics and game information for 9 major poker sites,
including PartyPoker,
PokerStars,
ParadisePoker,
UltimateBet and
Full Tilt Poker