Liquidity Sharing Bumps WSOP.com To Top Of New Jersey Market

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Tuesday, January 20th, 2015 | Written by Shane Larson

A recent agreement by WSOP.com and 888Poker’s All American Poker Network (AAPN) to share liquidity in New Jersey’s online poker market has lead to a dramatic increase in their player numbers, with both sites now overtaking Party Borgata as the state’s most popular poker sites. According to the latest numbers by online tracking site PokerScout.com, WSOP.com is currently the market leader with an average of 190 cash game players over a seven-day period, followed by All American (NJ) with 170, with Party Borgata (NJ) now in bottom spot with 160 players.

Partial Liquidity Agreement

Caesars Atlantic City is the licensee of both WSOP.com and 888Poker’s All American Poker Network (AAPN), with these sites using the same software supplied by 888 Holdings. This has made combining their player pools possible, and while the liquidity agreement is currently limited to just low stakes cash games and Sit-and-Go tourneys, as well as a select number of tournaments with $130,000+ prize pools, it is extremely likely their next step will be to network their two sites completely in the near future.

Traffic Soars At Both Sites

Prior to WSOP.com and the All American Poker Network’s liquidity agreement, the Borgata Hotel Casino’s internet partner bwin.party had New Jersey’s’s biggest poker site, Party Borgata, which in December had 54% of NJ’s internet poker revenues. Following the player sharing deal, however, the industry seemed certain that situation would soon change, and as AAPN CEO David Licht said at the time:

“This is an excellent step forward for us and should help in building a larger audience and player base for online poker in New Jersey. Shared liquidity will help create a better player experience, we hope will attract a diversity of players and begin to bring poker to a broader audience once again.”

Just over one week later, and that has now become a reality. In fact, WSOP.com has seen its cash game traffic soar almost 50% since the merger, whilst 888poker has seen an even more dramatic rise of 75%, taking both sites above Party Borgata in the New Jersey market. The one piece of positive news for Party Borgata, however, is that it doesn’t seem to have lost any traffic of its own over the same period, with its cash game trafic similar to the numbers it saw a week earlier.

Sharing A Matter Of Necessity

For years, industry analysts have been expounding the benefits of shared player pools, leading to states such as Nevada and Delaware announcing an interstate sharing agreement early last year. While these two states have so far failed to enact the deal, and Nevada’s poker market has contracted by 38% since peaking in June, the quick actions of WSOP.com and 888poker.com demonstrates just how fast the sites can benefit from a merger.

As well as being of benefit, it could also be argued that liquidity sharing is also a matter of necessity, at least where online poker is concerned. Unlike casino games such as slot machines or blackjack, for instance, poker needs sufficient numbers of players to compete against one another to produce a viable, attractive landscape capable of attracting people to the virtual tables. Furthermore, more players translates into larger tournament prize pools, attracting more competitors thus generating a positive feedback loop for the sites.

Spark A Recovery In NJ iPoker market?

It may be too early to be certain, but if the increase in traffic continues then it could help start a recovery in the Garden State’s internet poker market. This would be welcome relief to an already seemingly saturated industry, which throughout last year saw its revenues drop from around $3 million each month to below $2 million.

In December, New Jersey’s internet poker market then had its first positive month since September, with revenues up by 10.1% to $2.06 million. This, along with sites such as partypoker and 888poker aggressively marketing their products has raised optimism of an increased interest in online poker in the state. In addition to the gains already seen, there is also further hope that January’s WPT Borgata Winter Poker, which will take place around the same time as the online poker series known as the Garden State Super Series, will help encourage more players to the virtual felts. Finally, if PokerStars is granted a license to enter New Jersey before March, then this could help bring in even more recreational players who are already familiar with the global PokerStars brand.