Canadian online gambling giant Amaya Inc. confirmed on Tuesday that its online poker brands PokerStars and Full Tilt will merge their player pools to create a single poker product. Reports about a possible merger emerged in several poker-oriented forums earlier this week. Amaya also said that the pooling of its brands will be completed this spring.
The gambling company further explained that it has decided on this move in order to be able to focus on improving the operations of a single market-leading platform rather than two separate ones. Thus, it will be able to provide players with better experience and to deliver innovations more quickly and effectively.
Both PokerStarts and Full Tilt are run by the Rational Group, a company founded by businessmen Isai and Mark Scheinberg and acquired by Amaya in the summer of 2014, after President and CEO David Baazov landed an unprecedented deal worth $4.9 billion.
In 2011, both brands, with PokerStars still owned by the Scheinbergs, were chased away from the US market in disgrace, after allegedly providing illegal gambling options there and processing payments related to the said services. As part of a settlement deal with the US government, PokerStars agreed to acquire all Full Tilt’s assets and to forfeit the amount of $547 million over a three-year period. Ever since, the two poker rooms have been operating as separate brands.
Commenting on the announcement about the two brands’ merger, Rational Group CEO Rafi Ashkenazi said this important step will result in players benefiting from a larger pool of opponents, a wider variety of games, and bigger prize pools. The executive also explained that this will make it easier for the company and its employees to focus their attention on the technological development of a single platform. Thus, innovations are expected to be introduced more quickly and launched in both existing and new markets swiftly.
Amaya said that Full Till is still a “profitable poker room,” but has seen its market share decline since the brand was relaunched in 2012 after being purchased by PokerStars. In fact, Full Tilt was once the world’s second most popular poker room but major changes in its cash-game tables resulted in its falling out of top 10 of traffic rankings and other unpleasant consequences.
Amaya also provided details on how Full Tilt players will be informed about the merger. After its completion, Full Tilt and PokerStars players will have a single account and will be able to play through branded software of each of the poker rooms. What is more, Full Tilt players will join PokerStars’ VIP Club, known to be the brand’s rewards program. They will be able to choose among products offered by each of the two brands as well as ones of the all Stars-family, depending on the jurisdiction they are based in.
