888 Poker: has the poker room started to rise?
As a poker affiliate, it's crucial to track the financial performance of major poker rooms and networks. Let's remind that 888 Poker has been losing its position in recent years, although it's still a TOP10 poker site in terms of traffic. For 2018, 888 lost 37% of revenue, and after the first half of 2019, profit fell by another quarter.
All the forecasts pointed out that in 2019, 888 Poker would break the previous year's record, but the situation changed in the last months of the year.
A recent report from 888 Holdings states that:
In 2019, 888 Poker's revenue was $42.7 million, which is only 13% less than in 2018.
That is, in the second half of 2019, the poker room recovered, although this period only gave $18.6 million, 43% of the annual profit.
As for the absolute figures, $42.7 million is the lowest revenue in the past ten years. And the share of poker among other 888 Holdings products decreased to 7.6%.
We can conclude that 888Poker continued to decline at the beginning of 2020, but at a slower rate than before. What is the poker room doing to attract more players now?
Poker 8 is the standard now
After the latest update of the Poker 8 client on April 21, 2020, players lost the option to disable the new design of Poker 8 tables. This new version of the client has been running for a year, and still, it only affects the tables.
It's still possible to install an older version of the software to avoid updating and return to previous tables. Still, it's clear that this is a temporary solution, and sooner or later, the room will end support for such versions, and everyone will have to switch to Poker 8.
The new client, like many things iatn 888 Poker, was developed with amateur players in mind, so many regulars don't like the changes that Poker 8 brings.
XL Inferno: $1,500,000 GTD from May 14, 2020
In terms of bonuses, 888 Poker is doing nothing new. As before, its main promotions are mass freerolls that players can play by completing daily tasks.
The site has been active scheduling new tournament series, and for May 2020, a new edition of the XL Inferno series was announced with a total guaranteed prize pool of $1,5M across 34 events.
Full XL Inferno schedule in May 2020
| Date | Event | Description | Buy-in | Guarantee |
| 14 may | 1 | Opening Event | $109 | $75,000 |
| 2 | Mini Opening Event | $16.50 | $25,000 | |
| 3 | Late Opening Event | $55 | $20,000 | |
| 15 may | 4 | PKO | $55 | $30,000 |
| 5 | Mini PKO | $22 | $20,000 | |
| 6 | Late PKO | $33 | $10,000 | |
| 16 may | 7 | 8-Max | $109 | $30,000 |
| 8 | Mini 8-Max | $8.80 | $10,000 | |
| 9 | Late 8-Max | $55 | $15,000 | |
| 17 may | 10 | Tune Up | $109 | $150,000 |
| 11 | Mini Tune Up | $16.50 | $50,000 | |
| 12 | Micro Tune Up | $5.50 | $15,000 | |
| 13 | Late Tune Up | $55 | $20,000 | |
| 18 may | 14 | R&A Event | $33 | $20,000 |
| 15 | Mini R&A | $5.50 | $10,000 | |
| 16 | Late R&A | $16.50 | $15,000 | |
| 19 may | 17 | High Roller | $320 | $100,000 |
| 18 | Mini High Roller | $55 | $30,000 | |
| 19 | Late High Roller | $109 | $20,000 | |
| 20 may | 20 | PKO | $109 | $50,000 |
| 21 | Mini PKO | $16.50 | $20,000 | |
| 22 | Late PKO | $33 | $10,000 | |
| 21 may | 23 | PKO 8-Max | $160 | $50,000 |
| 24 | Mini PKO 8-Max | $22 | $20,000 | |
| 25 | Late PKO 8-Max | $55 | $20,000 | |
| 22 may | 26 | DeepStack | $55 | $30,000 |
| 27 | Mini DeepStack | $16.50 | $20,000 | |
| 28 | Late DeepStack | $33 | $15,000 | |
| 23 may | 29 | 6-Max | $109 | $30,000 |
| 30 | Mini 6-Max | $16.50 | $20,000 | |
| 31 | Late 6-Max | $55 | $15,000 | |
| 24 may | 32 | Main Event | $250 | $500,000 |
| 33 | Mini Main Event | $33 | $50,000 | |
| 34 | Micro Main Event | $5.50 | $20,000 |
888 Poker traffic overview for April 2020
As we all know, the spring of this year and the self-isolation regime gave a powerful boost to online poker traffic. Right now, 888 Poker has 20% more games compared to 2017. Surely this will have a positive impact on the financial indicators of the room.
For comparison, we will take data from the beginning of January, when all room features the annual peak of traffic:
6-max NLH (Tables)
| Stake | January | April |
| NL10$ | 20 | 46 |
| NL20-30$ | 17 | 31 |
| NL50$ | 14 | 23 |
| NL100$ | 7 | 14 |
| NL200$ | 7 | 11 |
| NL500$ | 4 | 6 |
| NL1K$+ | 5 | 9 |
| Total | 74 | 140 |
Snap – fast-fold poker (Connections)
| Stake | January | April |
| NL10$ | 43 | 97 |
| NL20$ | 55 | 53 |
| NL50$ | 39 | 75 |
| NL200$ | 10 | 22 |
| Total | 147 | 247 |
Conclusion:
The number of games at 888 Poker starting at NL10 has increased by 1.5-2 times since the beginning of 2020.
888Poker and WSOP 2020
Of course, after the WSOP 2020 was postponed, many players wonder what will happen with the packages they've already won, as a new schedule implies many changes. Surely 888 Poker will offer solutions for everyone.
But there is another more interesting question. 888 Poker is a long-term partner of the WSOP, and we already saw how Ty Stewart said that they were working to bring international operators to conduct online series. Will this also apply to 888?
So far, only GGPoker has announced a partnership with WSOP to held the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series with $100M GTD, but shortly, more sites will surely post new events.
Reach us to get an 888 Poker rakeback deal and start playing now:
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