Expanding French Market Helps Spur Online Poker Growth

Online poker traffic continued its recovery from the traditional slow part of the year, thanks in large part to the end of the World Series of Poker and continued expansion in the French poker market. Six of the top ten poker labels recorded gains as poker continues to battle back against what has been a slow international market, recording its third straight weekly gain to move the industry back to a three percent annual growth rate.

PartyPoker maintained its hold on third place in the list, marking the fourth consecutive week that the top four has remained the same. Among the gainers for the week, both Svenska Spel and Ongame.fr moved up three places, to hold 13th and 19th places, respectively.

The French market continues to be a strong source of gains, as more newly licensed sites come online. Now representing 5 percent of the global market, additional growth is expected as nine new licenses were awarded this week, including one for both Full Tilt Poker and PKR. All totaled, five of the top 25 sites are French, with PokerStars.fr at 8th, EverestPoker.fr at 10th, Ongame.fr at 17th, PartyPoker.fr at 20th and FullTiltPoker.fr at 25th.

The upcoming week looks to be promising as a number of sites have new promotions aimed at the traditional end-of-summer rise in online traffic. The Full Tilt Online Poker Series and the UB Online Championships are also both coming up, offering to increase player interest as poker looks to start maintain its new-found strength.