PokerStars Crushing It in Michigan Online Poker Market

PokerStars is definitely getting rewarded for being the first and only Michigan online poker site. According to PokerScout, which tracks the world’s iPoker traffic, PokerStars MI is currently the world’s 15th largest site by cash-game traffic.

Stars is drawing an average of 450 Michigan cash players an hour. This figure outranks PokerStars PA (350 players) and WSOP/888 US (240), the latter of which serves Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey through a compact.

Is Michigan the New Online Poker Hotbed?

The Wolverine State is currently the top American state with regard to internet poker traffic. This is impressive when considering that it’s smaller than Pennsylvania by a fair margin.

Michigan has 10 million residents, while the Quaker State has over 12.8 million. It’s also beating the trio of Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey, which combine for a population of almost 13 million.

Based on its numbers, the Wolverine State currently looks like the hottest US location regarding internet poker. It got off on the right foot when PokerStars held a Michigan Championship of Online Poker (MICOOP), which boasted 60 tournaments with over $1 million in guaranteed prize money.

More Sites Coming to Michigan

Stars is currently enjoying a monopoly in this state. It’s maintaining hundreds of cash players every hour and is earning plenty of revenue from the matter.

However, PokerStars won’t be the only game in town for long. Other online poker rooms will soon be launching here.

888poker is sitting on the sidelines in hopes that they’ll soon be approved by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB).

BetMGM has already gained online casino and poker licenses from the MGCB. It’s still working on its gaming sites and will launch at a TBA date.

Strangely enough, Michigan will soon be only the second state besides New Jersey to offer more than one poker site. Delaware and Nevada rely on WSOP.com, while Pennsylvania only features PokerStars.

Can Michigan Keep Up This Pace?

The Wolverine State hasn’t been offering online poker for very long. Therefore, it’s difficult to believe that MI will keep drawing nearly 500 hourly cash players.

Pennsylvania, for example, has been running internet poker games for a year. It too saw a spike early on and then dropped in traffic over the following months.

WSOP.com sees a big uptick in New Jersey and, especially, Nevada in June and July, when the World Series of Poker is taking place. However, its traffic falls to between 200 and 300 hourly cash grinders during other parts of the year.

Once Michigan has been offering iPoker for a while, its traffic could very well fall behind what PA is bringing in. Most likely, it’ll settle in around 300 hourly cash players.

It could, however, also see higher or lower traffic than this based on how passionate Michiganians remain about online poker. That said, it’ll be interesting to see how popular internet poker is in Michigan within several months.