Union leaders. Teachers. London Underground workers. Poker players. What do these four groups have in common? They’ve all gone on strike to protest changes in their industries. In order to gain any traction, however, a strike must be successful.

A high-stakes boycott of PokerStars wrapped up one week ago and while many in the industry labeled it a failure, WeArePokerPlayers, the strike organizers, are claiming the seven-day strike resulted in a $1.3 million loss of rake for PokerStars.

The latest strike took place from January 1 to 7. A report produced by WeArePokerPlayers that was released on Thursday analyzed traffic during that time against similar seven-day periods starting from October 23. According to the Russian-based organizers, traffic at PokerStars dipped 13.9% over the seven-day period.

MTT Traffic

How did PokerStars reportedly lose $1.3 million in rake? At stakes above $100, MTT traffic fell 5% according to organizers, while sit and go traffic fell by one-third. There was no reduction in traffic reported at MTTs and sit and gos up to $15.

Countries Participating in the Boycott

The biggest reductions came from Costa Rica (63.5%), Malta (54.8%), and Uruguay (52.1%). Traffic in Russia fell by 29.9%, while traffic in Serbia fell 31.2%.

A strike designed to sink traffic at PokerStars certainly didn’t have the desired effect everywhere, however. Its organizers reported that traffic increased in Switzerland, Cyprus, Denmark, New Zealand, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Sweden, and Vietnam, just to name a few countries.

Spin & Go Traffic

In PokerStars’ lottery-style Spin & Gos with buy-ins of $30 and up, traffic fell between 7.6% and 22.6%.

Sit and Go Traffic

WeArePokerPlayers claimed the most damage was done at six-max sit and gos. According to the site, “Six-max SNGs were much more affected by the strike. At low and mid-stakes, traffic decreased by one-third. As for the turbo and hyper-turbo tournaments at $100+ stakes, traffic decreased by 80%. We can fairly state that the game in turbo format at high-stakes came to a halt: there were only 77 tournaments played within a week.”

Heads-up sit and gos also reportedly took a hit, with traffic at standard games falling by 50% and traffic at turbo games falling by 10%. Traffic at sit and gos with stakes of $15 to $100 fell 17%.

PokerScout’s Cash Game Numbers

According to PokerScout, which monitors cash game traffic, PokerStars had a 24-hour peak of 23,081 players on January 1, the first day of the strike. One week later on January 8, that number was 27,510, although the holiday likely played a major role in the dampened traffic on January 1 as opposed to the strike.

On January 2, peak traffic on Stars was 25,235, down about 1,100 from the 26,402 reported one week later on January 9. On January 3, peak traffic was 27,222, on par with the 27,088 on January 10. Traffic on January 4, 5, and 6 was down 4%, 4%, and 1% compared to one week later, respectively, according to PokerScout.

In cash games, WeArePokerPlayers claims that traffic at NL100 and up Zoom tables fell by one-quarter, whereas at standard cash game tables of stakes greater than NL400, traffic fell 30%.

Rake Loss

In total, WeArePokerPlayers claimed a $665,000 rake loss in sit and gos, $318,000 in Spin & Gos, and $1.15 million in cash games. After you remove benefits to high-stakes players, you get a net rake loss to PokerStars of $1.3 million over the seven-day period, or roughly $4 million over one month if the trend held for that long.

Boycott is a Good Thing for PokerStars?

About 30% of the protesters were Supernova or Supernova Elite, the group PokerStars has targeted via a significant reduction in benefits. Having these players sit out, however, may be exactly what PokerStars wants.

The world’s largest online poker site has said, for example, that an increase in Supernova Elite players “does not provide a financial benefit to us.” Any action that steers this group away from the tables, therefore, seems to be what PokerStars wants.

Additionally, PokerStars said of the three-day strike in December, “During the three-day boycott, we recorded the healthiest consecutive three-day ecosystem results of the year with steady net gaming revenue, even though our net depositing players lost at a much lower rate than they have all year.”

Therefore, some would question whether PokerStars might have been thrilled to lose $1.3 million in rake short-term in order to have a healthier ecosystem in the long-run.

Speaking on this, WeArePokerPlayers told PocketFives, “Supernova Elite players created around 5% pure rake with the old system. Amaya doesn’t want to lose this money; they want everyone to play the same amount they used to but receive much less benefits.”

Over 1,600 players were registered for the January strike.