Casino & Poker are on the up and Bulgarian players are back in the game

In the past 14 days search for casino terms in Bulgaria increased by 36%, and most online operators are experiencing between 20% and 60% increase in casino bets, according to affiliates who have visibility over player activity.

The quick research we conducted about player activity with 2 sportsbook & casino operators shows similar results.
Over 2 identical periods of 12 days each, in March (before and after stoppage of sports events) we have observed:

* 34% decrease in sports-betting with operator 1
* 49% decrease with operator 2
Whereas at the same time casino activity showed:
* 50% increase in casino activity for operator 1
* 20% up at operator 2

Plus, the story with regards to poker is ever more interesting, particularly because of the consistent decline and, by large, the falling from grace which the industry experienced in the past several years. Yes, Poker has seen a spectacular revival in popularity with several major milestones reached in just a matter of few weeks.

As poker searches have increased by 30-40%, Pokerstars, in particular, have experienced a surge of more than 70% in Bulgaria, probably also connected to the recent Anniversary Sunday Million. The tournament turned out to be the biggest online poker one ever, with a prize pool of more than $18 million, more than 60 thousand players and more than 30k re-buys. Happily, we also had 2 Bulgarian players win, both with more than $10k in prize money each!

Indeed the increase in interest in poker has been so substantial that we have received information from an insider, who preferred not to be quoted that Pokerstars have had to reallocate new teams to help with verifications of new customers, due to lack of capacity in dealing with the interest in our beloved game.

And all this with most poker operators reporting traffic at its highest point in the last 5 years.