How Does the Addition of Omaha Affect a Site's Traffic?
One brand new addition to the legal and regulated Nevada online poker room Ultimate Pokeris Omaha. On October 27, Ultimate Poker finally broke its Texas Hold’em homogeny, introducing Omahato its players. According to PokerScout’s weekly Scouting Report, Omaha, along with its sibling Omaha Hi/Lo, has proven to be popular, comprising more than 20% of the site’s cash game traffic. This is more than twice the industry average, which is just 10%.
It does appear that traffic to Omaha games has been gradually declining, but every day but one has seen it make up at least one-fifth of Ultimate Poker’s overall ring game traffic.
In Nevada, Ultimate Poker and its rival, WSOP.com, are in a virtual dead heat, with Ultimate Poker averaging 126 cash game players over the past seven days and WSOP.com averaging 125, according to PokerScout’s tally. In four of the last five days, WSOP.com’s peak traffic has eclipsed Ultimate Poker’s, with the one exception showing a difference of just six players.
Because WSOP.com has been cutting into Ultimate Poker’s traffic, it is hard to get a handle on whether the addition of Omaha has helped the site. Considering its popularity, it certainly hasn’t hurt. A better question might be why is Omaha so popular right now at Ultimate Poker? Its noveltyis probably the number one answer; we could very well see a continued decline as the weeks go by.
It is also possible that the site’s customer base is more advanced than the average site’s customer base. More skilled and experienced players typically branch out past good, old Hold’em and explore other games.
For its part, WSOP.com came out of the box offering multiple varieties of poker, including No Limit, Fixed Limit, and Pot Limit Hold’em; No Limit, Fixed Limit, and Pot Limit Omaha; and Fixed Limit Seven Card Stud. Omaha Hi/Lo is also spread at the poker site. There is no word as to whether WSOP.com or Ultimate Poker will eventually add more games such as Razz, Triple Draw, and the like, although one might expect they will at some point as they grow.
Sign up for WSOP.comand sign up for Ultimate Poker today. Both are completely licensed and regulated rooms that accept players physically located in Nevada.
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PokerScout’s Scouting Report is a daily newsletter for the online poker industry, with in-depth data and analysis of the market. More information can be found by clicking here or contacting support@pokerscout.com.
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