by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Apr 24, 2012 | Updated on Apr 24, 2012While most of the online poker world has shrunk since Black Friday, 888 Holdings’ poker site, 888 Poker, has been bucking that trend. On Tuesday, the company issued an earnings statement that showed poker revenue up to $21 million for the first quarter of 2012 – up from $11 million over the same period in 2011.Amusingly, that means that 888 Poker has grown a very appropriate 88% over the last year. But the story of 888 Poker’s growth is about much more than just their revenues. The player base of active players is also up significantly, with an 83% in active customers year-over-year. That brought the total number of active players at 888 Poker up to 405,000 for the first quarter of 2012. In addition, the average revenue made on each customer was up 3%.“Our focused strategy has led to another excellent quarter, with ongoing strength in Poker driving March to the highest ever monthly revenues in the history of 888,” said 888 CEO Brian Mattingley. “Poker has continued its robust performance in the early stages of Q2.”The growth has turned 888 Poker from a minor player in online poker to won that is consistently placing among the five largest poker sites in the world. According to poker traffic tracking site PokerScout, while 888 Poker still ranks far behind Party Poker and iPoker (which in turn are dwarfed by PokerStars), they have generally passed the OnGame network to become the 4th largest worldwide poker site in the industry, averaging over 2,000 real money cash game players at any given time.That growth is particularly impressive considering the overall state of online poker. With the large exodus of the USA market, PokerScout reported that by early April, year-over-year traffic in the online poker industry was down about 32%. However, a few companies were bucking this trend, including 888 Poker, Bodog Poker, and the Merge Gaming Network.
