New French Poker Sites Record High Traffic

French poker sites have ranked well against rival sites from other countries this week, in the first measure of the market since new laws were introduced in France in June.

PokerStars.fr has been the most successful of the new sites to this point, entering PokerScout's Weekly Online Poker Traffic Update rankings in ninth place worldwide.

The site recorded an average last week of 1,280 cash game players each day, with a high of 2,276 players.

EverestPoker.fr was also successful, finishing the week in 14th place with an average of 850 cash game players a day and a high of 1,430.

Big names Bwin and PartyPoker were a little less successful, however, with Bwin.fr averaging 630 cash game players a day and PartyPoker.fr averaging 400 to be placed at number 24 in the world rankings.

France issued 11 online gaming licenses in June, shortly after the successful passage of a law that ended the long-running state monopoly on gambling. Austrian-based company Bwin, Europe's largest online gaming site, was the only foreign operator to be awarded a licenses.

The French poker sites made up for 4 percent of all online poker players around the world last week, according to the statistics.