For the past 12 months, GGPoker has been building a comfortable lead in the Ontario online poker market, largely at the expense of its rivals, the latest cash game traffic figures show.
Also known as WSOP Ontario, the site has averaged 296 concurrent cash game players on its network in December so far, according to data collected by GameIntel and available on the Poker Industry PRO platform. This gives it 43% of the market in terms of cash game traffic.
That was up considerably from one year earlier, when GGPoker averaged 191 players and held little more than 28% of the market.
- Exciting tournament action
- Quality software & mobile apps
- Online WSOP bracelet events
As GGPoker Grows, Smaller Operators Suffer in Ontario
It should be noted that cash game traffic is just one metric by which poker operators can be measured, and that other metrics should also be taken into consideration. For example, an operator could have been busy hosting a massive poker tournament, but play from the series wouldn’t be reflected in the cash game traffic numbers.
That said, the BetMGM Ontario Network — which in the province includes the Entain brands Partypoker and Bwin Poker — has averaged just 117 concurrent cash game players in December to date, down from 194 in December 2022.
PokerStars Ontario, its primary rival, has mostly kept pace with GGPoker. Its cash game traffic has averaged 255 in December, down just slightly on 265 in December 2022.
The entire market — again, purely from a cash game traffic perspective — is up 3% year-over-year: There has been an average of 696 concurrent cash game players across all four Ontario poker networks in December so far, up slightly on an average of 673 recorded in December 2022.
The market’s best month? That’s still November 2022, when there was reportedly an average of 779 concurrent cash game players. But the market has also been trending upward since August, and still has the busy winters months ahead.
GGPoker Traffic Trending Upward
GGPoker is on a roll just as Ontario online poker heads into the busy winter season.
December has been the operator’s fourth-best month overall in terms of cash game traffic. GGPoker’s traffic was also approaching levels not seen since its first three months in the province — September through November 2022. It peaked in October of that year with an average of 365 concurrent cash game players.
Cash game traffic data show GGPoker has accounted for at least 40% of the market since July. That was also the last month where the BetMGM network represented at least 20%. GGPoker and BetMGM have been going in different directions since July. The latter fell to an average of 50 concurrent cash game players in November (just 8.3% of the market) thought has enjoyed a stronger December.
Meanwhile, one year ago, PokerStars had the province’s most successful online poker room — in terms of cash game traffic. It averaged 265 players in December 2022, enough for 39.4% of the market. But in the first half of the year, PokerStars watched as GGPoker chipped away at its lead. The pair swapped places in early July, and since then has held the lead almost uninterrupted. At the time of writing, GGPoker is enjoying one of its largest leads over its rivals.
