As expected, traffic on the three poker sites named in the indictments of April 15th has fallen. Latest data shows Merge network the biggest benefactor, their traffic growings as they continue to offer games to the US market.
According to PokerScout, an independent tracker of online poker traffic, PokerStars has seen a 28% drop in traffic, Full Tilt Poker a 35% drop, and Cereus Network a 65% drop in traffic since Black Friday.
The decrease in traffic is directly attributed to the sites declining play from the US market. While PokerStars and FullTilt have entered into agreements with the Department of Justice that stipulates they will stop serving US players, Cereus Network has yet to enter into such an agreement.
The players have not all gone away. Other sites have seen an increase in traffic in the wake of Black Friday. The clear winner to this point has been the Merge Network that hosts such skins as Carbon Poker, Poker Nordica, Overbet, and Black Chip Poker. According to Pokerscout, the Merge Network has seen a 61% increase in traffic. Other poker networks that continue to serve the US market have seen increases as well but Merge is the clear frontrunner.
It remains to be seen if filling the void left by Black Friday will do for the Merge network what filling the void of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act UIGEA did for PokerStars and FullTilt. After UIGEA was passed in 2006, the biggest online poker site in the world PartyPoker decided to leave the US market. In doing so they opened the door for PokerStars and FullTilt to surpass them become the two biggest online poker sites in the world.
