The iPoker Network has seen a 15% bump in its online poker traffic for dot.com following the successful move of Everest Poker last Friday, according to the latest figures from PokerScout.
The French site has also been successfully moved to iPoker.FR, increasing the almost-dormant network by a factor of 20 and transforming it into a serious contender in the French market.
Everest has entered the “top tier” on iPoker. When Everest first launched late last week, a deployment error put Everest on to both tiers, although pokerfuse has since confirmed this issue has now been rectified and Everest is now strictly just on the top tier.
It is the seventh skin to be in this subsection of the network, alongside Bet365, Paddy Power, Poker770, Titan, William Hill and late arrival Winner Poker. Players on one of these seven skins will benefit most from the traffic increase, although tables outside of those split up—fixed limit hold’em, MTTs, most SNGs and all non-hold’em games—should also see improved liquidity.
The successful transition comes just ten weeks after pokerfuse first revealed that the independent Everest was planning to switch to the iPoker network. According to PokerScout, approximately 90% of Everest cash game players have made the switch to the new software platform.
PokerScout called this “a good conversion rate after less than a week,” in the weekly traffic report, adding that it was “one of the largest network acquisitions in online poker history.”
But perhaps the largest shake-up, and the biggest coup for iPoker, was on the French side. In regulated and segregated France, Everest maintained a sizable player pool, biggest than on dot.com. iPoker.FR, on the other hand, had so far failed to gain much traction, with just a couple of licensed poker rooms (including BetClic.FR, part of the BetClic Everest group).
The successful merger has turned iPoker.FR to a real contender, now nipping at the heals of PartyPoker.FR for third place in the market.
As for on the international network, it has given itself a sizable lead ahead of PartyPoker, its perennial rival. For the last 16 months this has been a battle for second place, although with the return of Full Tilt Poker, this is expected to become a third-place fight.
But bwin.party has its own plans for network growth. With bwin players moving onto the PartyGaming platform in the next few weeks following the successful ongame sale, a new software platform for 2013, and the Zynga UK deal, it is far from out of the fight for a top three spot.
