Lottery-Style Games Drag Cash Game Traffic Down 14% in 2015
According to PokerScout, lottery-style games have dragged cash game traffic on the world’s online poker sites down 14% in the first half of 2015. As PokerScout explained, “Online poker traffic in the first half of 2015 was down 14% from last year, marking the fourth consecutive year of first half declines. The loss is the largest since 2011/2012, when Black Friday drove traffic down by 28%.”
This is a historic drop-off, and PokerScout explained, “The exodus was accelerated last fall when PokerStarslaunched its lottery SNG variant. Spin and Gos virtually transformed the online poker landscape overnight and today accounts for a significant portion of PokerStars’ revenue. By now, most major operators have introduced lottery SNGs.”
If you’re not familiar with them, Spin and Gos are three-max hyper-turbo sit and gos that have starting stacks of 500 in chips. The buy-ins go all the way up to $60 and each tournament randomly awards a prize pool between 2x and 3,600x the buy-in. Players enjoy them because they are quick-moving; laymen are drawn to the game due the allure of a massive payday.
The overall odds of hitting the 3,600x prize pool multiplier are 1 in 100,000. The odds of hitting a 2x prize pool multiplier are around 70%.
Winamaxoriginated the game, called Expresso (pictured), in mid-2013. On Full Tilt, they’re called Jackpot Sit and Gos, while on iPoker sites like bet-at-home, the variant is called Twister Poker. Spin and Gos debuted in October 2014. During the first week Spin and Gos were introduced, cash game traffic on PokerStars decreased 9.2%.
PokerScout pointed out that we’ll need to wait until the end of 2015 to see the real impact of lottery-style games: “The first real look the cash game growth rate will come in October, after the anniversary of the worldwide launch of Spin and Go. Thus, Q4 will offer a telling comparison unless online poker operators introduce another game-changing innovation in the meantime.”
Overall, online poker traffic dropped 1% last week, the 12th straight week of declines.
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