The worldwide online poker market saw a 2% increase in overall traffic this week. Perhaps we are starting to come back from the mid summer doldrums.

Amaya concludes acquisition of the parent company of PokerStars and Full Tilt. With the transition of company ownership in place, Amaya can now look to see if they can obtain a license in the US.

Online poker traffic fell by another 1% this week, although this was a smaller decrease than we saw last week. Only half of the top 10 online poker sites lost ground this time.

Since 2011 Americans were unable to play in huge guaranteed tournaments such as PokerStars’ Sunday Million. America’s Cardroom is now out to change that with their million dollar GTD tournament.

Winimax’s Expresso sit and go format, which they rolled out a year ago, is really starting to catch on lately, and as is often the case with new poker formats, other sites are copying it.

The World Cup had little effect on the online poker scene in the U.S. unlike what happened at poker sites in most of the rest of the world.

Online poker has been banned in Russia for 5 years now, but the government’s hard line stance seems to be softening. Amaya Gaming announced their attention to pursue a secondary listing.

New Jersey is now looking at granting a license to the new ownership, to finally allow PokerStars to come to America officially. Full Tilt is also looking to expand and they have just applied for a license to operate on the Italian market.

The World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world and with the World Cup in full swing, there have been some noticeable drops in online poker traffic.

Amaya Gaming bought the company that owns both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. One of the offshoots of the deal is the potential for the world’s largest poker site to expand into casino and sports betting.