Online Poker Report – Six weeks ago, I took my first real look at New Jersey’s six major poker sites. Since then, that number has been effectively reduced to five, as I can’t in good faith review a site that generates less monthly revenue than a lemonade stand does in a blizzard (at least Betfair’s NJ-based online casino is faring somewhat better).
The rest of the Garden State’s virtual poker offerings have spent the past month-and-a-half jockeying for position, spending significant sums of money on partnerships, advertising and other marketing schemes in the process.
Some networks, like Party Poker NJ, have used their nearly endless monetary resources and brand recognition to forge alignments with professional sports teams and crowning poker millionaires, while others have taken a more creative approach to drawing players to their sites. Ultimate Poker’s unprecedented NO-verlay promo springs immediately to mind.
Yet, amidst all the marketing hoopla, the sites themselves haven’t evolved all that much. Software updates have been few and far between, and geolocation issues are still causing headaches.
That’s not to say that progress isn’t being made; it’s just that some players are beginning to grow impatient.
So instead of focusing exclusively on software upgrades (that would make for a fairly short article), this iteration of our review will focus primarily on the information new and existing players want to know. Namely, traffic, value and promotions.
For the purposes of this review NJ.PartyPoker.com and BorgataPoker.com will be grouped together, as they share the same interface, player base and weekly tournament schedule.
Promotions vary, but not so much that the sites would benefit from being viewed as two separate entities.
