iPoker withdraws from Ukranian market and partially leaves Russian market

The iPoker network's already declining traffic could take an even bigger hit with the changes.

The iPoker network has officially announced that they are fully withdrawing from the Ukranian market and that several iPoker rooms are also leaving the Russian market.

According to the company, they have already left the Ukranian market on August 15 and have notified all local players. The client will still be available to them until the end of the month so they can withdraw their balances but they can't sit at the tables anymore.

 

Their decision to leave the market came as quite a surprise since online poker is very popular in the country and the Ukranian government has made no steps to restrict online gambling providers.

The Russian gambling regulator, the Roskomnadzor however has already banned several sites in Russia which provide online gambling services without a license. As a result of this, Gala Poker, Coral Poker and Mansion Poker are all leaving the country.

As we have previously reported, the iPoker network's cash game traffic has declined 35% from last year and 50% total in the past two years. Since Russian players make up a large percentage of the global online poker player pool, the departure of the aforementioned rooms could cause an additional drop in the network's traffic.