Managing Editor
June online poker revenue numbers are in, and WSOP is once again the top dog in U.S. online poker, though probably only temporarily. Its daily average revenue jumped 35% from May to June, echoing a pattern that has existed since its online bracelet events expanded into a full series available in states outside Nevada.
WSOP’s traffic patterns follow the brand’s live tournament schedule, bucking the seasonal trend of other sites. Traditionally, online poker and other forms of iGaming peak in the winter months and ebb in the summer. Reversing that has often allowed WSOP to take the market lead for a few months at a time, even though it hasn’t been the number one site overall in many years.
At one time, that honor went to PokerStars, but BetMGM has been the usual first-place site since the end of 2024. Its rise looked so impressive that after last fall’s WSOP Online Bracelet series, we speculated that it might be the last time WSOP could overtake BetMGM, even with the benefit of that live series synergy.
However, BetMGM has recently shown signs of losing its momentum. So, for this summer at least, WSOP has once again overtaken it, with an estimated $2.88 million in June revenue to BetMGM’s $2.65 million.
That may be a bittersweet win for WSOP, however, having more to do with BetMGM’s struggles than its own success. Attendance at the live series is way down this year, especially from international players. The performance of WSOP.com looks no better, as that $2.88 million represents a year-over-year drop of nearly 20% from June 2025, when the site brought in $3.59 million.
The WSOP Summer Boost Over the Years
Last summer, WSOP’s revenue surged 66% over two months from April to June, roughly twice the gains seen this summer. In fairness, however, we might only be able to attribute half of that to the bracelet series. Late April 2024 was when Pennsylvania joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, which helped all operators except PokerStars—the only site that failed to take advantage of the possibility.
However, the two effects likely compounded each other. Pennsylvania players on WSOP.com would have been excited not only to play against peers in other states, but to participate in the “real” Online Bracelet Series for the first time, rather than in a separate, smaller series. With that novelty now having worn off, WSOP’s downward correction has been even sharper than BetMGM’s by about five or six percentage points.
The good news is that although the summer gains were weaker this year, they’re only back in line with the 2024 bump, not worse than that. In fact, the site’s revenue throughout H1 2026 has been almost identical to 2024.
PokerScout’s state-by-state and operator-by-operator revenue estimates only go back to January 2024, due to regulatory changes at the time that made this sort of granularity possible. In any case, the situation for WSOP prior to 2024 was significantly different, because its Pennsylvania site hadn’t yet been networked with other states.
Looking at that historical context, we see that the bump for 2024 and 2026 is perhaps a little disappointing, but not abnormally low. Before the pandemic, when there were only a handful of online bracelet events rather than a full series, online revenue mostly dropped or stayed flat in June. The events of 2020, however, forced the series to be played out entirely online and normalized the idea of competing for bracelets in that arena.
When it returned in 2021 in its new hybrid format, revenue for WSOP NJ skyrocketed 86%. By contrast, 2022 was the worst post-pandemic year with a rise of only 15%, while 2023 saw an increase of 52%.
FanDuel Poker Makes It a Three-Horse Race
The question now is what is going to happen once the World Series of Poker is over. The series itself is approaching its conclusion, but that will only be reflected in WSOP’s August revenue, which we won’t get to see until mid-September. As it comes back down, it’s hard to know who will be on top.
It’s unlikely to be WSOP once the dust settles. Its year-over-year decline is worse than its competitors, so if it was the third-place site before the series, that’s likely where it will be after.
The summer bump hasn’t changed the picture much for anyone else. WSOP added 7.9 percentage points to its market share, rising from 26.6% to 34.5%, but that came equally from all competitors. BetMGM is down 3.1 points, FanDuel Poker (formerly PokerStars) down 3.5 points, and BetRivers down 1.4 points (albeit from a smaller basis).
Before rebranding, PokerStars had fallen quite far from its former glory. However, the reboot as FanDuel Poker seems to be working. Its revenue is up 11% year-over-year while everyone else is down. In May, its revenue trailed BetMGM’s by a little more than $300,000. That margin hasn’t changed much. However, as players pull their winnings off WSOP after the series, that presents an opportunity to change sites — or perhaps, to go back to ones they abandoned previously. If FanDuel hopes to reclaim the crown that was once PokerStars’, that may be the moment to make its move.
Image Credit: Amine Abassir via Wikimedia Commons (license)
