Full Tilt Poker: The Big Comeback but For How Long

The online poker industry saw an instant re-entry of around 400,000 players worldwide when Full Tilt Poker opened its doors once more. This is according to PokerScount which kept a close eye on the numbers in the first week of Full Tilt Poker’s operations from November 6th.

A mere quarter of the average 8,500 daily cash game players were lured from other online poker sites, said PokerScout. The first day saw a high of 8,900 average players and although this number eventually fell 10% over the week, the numbers were still only 1,000 players less than those recorded before Full Tilt Poker shut down in June last year. These facts put pay to fears that FTP would never be able to return to pre-closing levels.

While some analysts had predicted that the opening of Full Tilt Poker would see a sharp drop in the number of players at other major sites, the fact was that sites such as PokerStars, PartyPoker and iPoker only lost around 5% of their real money players.

PokerScounts’ weekly table shows that Full Tilt Poker has slipped comfortably back into its traditional second place on the list, right below its new parent company, Poker Stars. Third and fourth placed iPoker and Bwin.Party have less than half of FTP’s level of traffic and pose absolutely no threat this second space spot for now. Bwin maintains one of the largest positions for online sports betting sites in the United Kingdom.

Only time will tell whether or not FTP will be able to maintain this strong position, through ongoing promotions, loyalty schemes and new affiliate programs. Analysts predict that there will be some highs and lows before the site finds a comfortable middle and returns its former glory.