If you’ve never heard of Expresso Poker on Winamax, we’ll let the EU-facing online poker room explain: “Three-handed Hyper-Turbo Sit and Go games from €1 to €10. Each Expresso has a random prize ranging from 2 to 1,000 times your buy-in. Enter a €10 Expresso and win a jackpot of €10,000… When an Expresso game starts, a random draw determines the prize pool.”

This week, the PokerScout Scouting Report looked at the impact of Expresso Poker on cash games at Winamax. Do Expresso tables drive people to cash games or are they sucking the life out of the real money ring game community? Or maybe it’s a little bit of both?

To that end, PokerScout evaluated, “Although we do not have traffic data specifically for Expresso tournaments, we can see the profound effect they’ve had on cash games. When Expresso launched in July, many cash players found themselves drawn in, causing Winamax ring game traffic to drop much more than PokerStars.fr over the summer. For a while, the two market leaders were nearly tied. Since the end of summer, Winamax has been climbing more quickly than PokerStars, rebuilding a substantial lead in cash game traffic.”

Could it be that Expresso is actually fueling cash game traffic on Winamax now? As soon as Expresso launched, as PokerScout explained, there was a steep drop-off in Winamax cash game traffic. Now, the site has rebounded to the point where Winamax leads PokerStars in terms of real money ring game traffic with a seven-day running average of 1,440 players compared to 1,140.

What if other sites wanted to copy the Expresso format? Could they? PokerScout explained, “Winamax does not mention any patents or other intellectual property protection for the Expresso format. Given the format’s apparent success and relatively high rake, can it be long before imitations appear on other sites?” The rake was pinpointed at effectively 7%.

Worldwide, Winamax is the eighth largest site or network, while PokerStars.fr is close behind in 11th.

As a reminder, if you don’t already have a Winamax account and live in an EU country, you can sign up through PocketFives’ link and make a deposit to get a 100% first-time deposit bonus up to €500 plus one free month of PocketFives Training with a deposit. You’ll also be able to play in our exclusive September PLB Competition on Winamax. Click here for PocketFives’ Winamax link. Remember, the site only accepts players from EU countries.

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.

Want the latest poker headlines and interviews? Follow PocketFives on Twitterand Like PocketFives on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed.