Full Tilt Changes Online Poker Statistics

Full Tilt Poker re-launched after a 16-month close down and reactivated 400,000 players, taking back its second place in worldwide poker traffic.

Full Tilt Poker averaged around 8,500 cash game players after re-opening, which is about three times as much of the traffic as on the iPoker Network or on Party Poker.

According to industry analysts, most Full Tilt players were not cannibalized from other operators, but were former gamblers who rather returned to play online poker. There was a 5 percent drop in the overall traffic of the top five poker sites after the FTP re-launch, which is equal to one quarter of FTP's traffic.

According to the figures, Full Tilt lost only about 11 percent of its customers, which is an amazing result.

There will be a poker battle for France, as there are many strong providers operating in the country under French gambling laws.

iPoker benefited from the acquisition of French online poker provider Everest Poker, with the network showing growth of 2,000 percent ahead of Party Poker and third place overall in the French market.

Overall online poker traffic increased by 3 percent year-on-year this week, despite disadvantageous regulatory moves and economic crisis.

There was a big change in the traffic: Poker Stars is down 7 percent, iPoker Network decreased 28 percent and Party Poker is down 32 percent.

French gambling news sources published some year-on-year gainers and losers. One notable gainer was the French iPoker site, up 1,500 percent as well as Revolution Gaming (formerly known as Cake Poker Network) with a 59 percent increase.

Notable declines were reported at IGT Poker, with a staggering 90 percent decrease. International Poker Network (IPN) was down 48 percent, Merge Gaming Network was down 46 percent.

The Italian iPoker reported a 31 percent decrease, PKR showed a 25 percent decline, the French Poker Stars site booked a 24 percent decrease and Ongame Network reported a 20 percent drop.

Traffic on Winning Poker Network, formerly known as Yatahay, was up 200 percent, but down 53 percent on the Everleaf Gaming Network.