In a somewhat surprising move, PokerStars launched on Tuesday the first shared online poker tables as part of the shared liquidity project four Southwestern European countries initiated several years ago and sealed with an agreement in July 2017.
PokerStars players from France and Spain can now play against each other, after the shared cash game tables went live on the online poker operator’s .fr and .es websites Tuesday afternoon. What should be considered the official start of the shared online poker liquidity project came just a day after the Spanish Official State Gazette published a resolution authorizing the start of the project and setting the specifics under which licensed operators could share liquidity within the borders of the countries that participate in the scheme.
It came as a bit of a surprise that PokerStars launched its shared Franco-Spanish tables so soon after the resolution’s publication. Under the terms set in said resolution, operators are required to inform Spain’s gambling regulator, DGOJ, well in advance about the precise date of launch of its shared cash game tables. While it was in mid-December when the online poker room was granted the necessary shared liquidity license from ARJEL, France’s online gambling regulator, and it was announced in early January that it was just a matter of weeks before first shared poker tables went live, it is a bit curious when and whether PokerStars has managed to inform the regulatory bodies about the exact day on which its tables would go live on time.
First Traffic Stats
The shared online poker liquidity project was initiated to hopefully improve the state of online poker in Europe’s segregated markets. Aside from Spain and France, Italy and Portugal also signed the July 2017 agreement in Rome that marked the start of the preparatory work needed in order for the scheme to be realized.
While it was expected that all four countries would participate in the official start of the project, unexpected delays hampered Italy and Portugal in joining the launch on time.
Commenting on yesterday’s launch of Franco-Spanish tables, Guy Templer, Chief Operating Officer of the Stars Interactive Group, congratulated the regulators of Spain and France for the job they have done toward the realization of the project, and encouraged Italy to “resume their drive toward shared liquidity”.
The project is expected to improve the online poker environment in the four segregated markets by allowing their players to participate in larger pools and to choose from a wider selection of poker games. As a result, regulators and operators hope that poker revenue in the four countries will also improve after years of decreases.
It can be seen on PokerScout that at the time of writing there are a total of 12,724 players on PokerStars’ .fr website, with 1,158 playing cash games. As many as 12,521 players are playing on the operator’s Spanish website, with 1,041 playing at its cash game tables. Casino News Daily will follow closely how traffic changes in the coming days and weeks.
