To many people there were a few things that were always going to happen in the regulated online poker market in Nevada. Firstly, that it would be saturated extremely quickly, and secondly that WSOP.com would sit on top of the rankings...looks like both of these things have happened. Although real money poker kicked off at WSOP.com almost 4 months later then Ultimate Poker it has slowly but surely gained traffic, and recently when looking at average numbers over a 7 day period it has taken the lead. It’s not a huge lead, however with a pretty small potential player pool to market to, there’s not that many online poker players to be divided up.
There are reasons why this has happened and of course having the biggest name in the world of poker is sure going to give you a bit of a head start...it’s Nevada, it’s WSOP, it’s not rocket science, however there is a little more to it than just a name, and bigger brands don’t always get things their own way. The WSOP.com offering is simply better and is provided by one of the bigger names in international online poker, that of 888. It really is a good poker client and more so, it is Mac friendly, whereas Ultimate Poker is not, further extending their player reach. WSOP.com is set to launch in New Jersey soon and although competition will be tougher it is likely that we will see similar results, and in a short time we will find that out, however the bigger question in Nevada will be, where does this leave those license holders that are yet to launch?
What Happens Next in Nevada?
When the CEO of MGM International Resort Jim Murren says that, "We have not launched because we have taken the view that poker-only here is not a profitable enterprise. There's not enough liquidity in our state,” people would do well to listen. It doesn’t really need reiterating that online poker in Nevada is pretty much at where it will stay for a long time now, and without joining forces with New Jersey and quite possibly the few players that Delaware may throw into the ring, there will be no overtaking WSOP.com, for anyone that may be so bold as to attempt it. Those with licenses to shuffle up and deal onto the virtual felt in the Silver State will be happy enough that they have that bit of paper that says that they are welcome to go ahead, but is the writing on that paper actually worth anything?
