New Jersey’s second major internet poker tournament series – the NJ Online Championship of Poker (NJCOP) – is now over with. Thousands of grinders rushed to the 8-day event, helping most of the tournaments smash their guarantees. So obviously, the NJCOP was an immediate success for the Party Borgata network. But does this mean that we can expect a boost to New Jersey online poker as a whole?
Not Much of a Short-term Boost in the Cash Game Department
There’s little argument that plenty of new faces were introduced to internet poker thanks to the NJCOP. But this was tournament traffic, and as many know, cash game traffic is typically the barometer used to measure industry success.
That said, the NJCOP really didn’t do much in terms of bringing cash players to Party Borgata. Before the April 19th start date of the $600k guaranteed series, PokerScout.com showed that the network’s 7-day average for cash traffic was at 170 players. Fast-forward to now and where are we at? An identical average of 170 cash players. As for New Jersey’s other poker networks, here’s a look at their before-and-after traffic:
WSOP: Before NJCOP – 123 players, After NJCOP – 120 players
AAPN: – Before – 86 players, After – 80 players
Ultimate NJ: Before – 6 players, After – 5 players
What About Long-Term Growth for Online Poker in New Jersey?
In March, New Jersey’s online poker traffic experienced a 3.2% spike after pulling in $3.2 million. Given that the previous two months saw slight decreases in internet poker revenue, many analysts contend that the market will remain stagnant, until NJ get into an interstate pact. This is especially the case after the NJCOP and $1m WSOP Online Championship (January) have failed to provide a major increase in traffic.
But as we’ve discussed several times in the past, New Jersey internet poker is still not running at an optimal level. Geolocation issues, although diminished, still prevent some players around state borders from enjoying real money tables. An even bigger matter is credit card rejections, which, last time we checked, saw Visa deposits being rejected at an incredibly high 50% rate.
As credit-card deposits begin to improve, we should see the NJ poker market increase, even without interstate poker. But as for now, it doesn’t look like any major traffic boosts will be coming due to big online tournament series.