Although there were no shared liquidity updates from the recent meeting between European gambling regulators in Lisbon, Portugal, ARJEL, France’s iGaming watchdog confirmed in its recent financial report that the first online poker agreement will be signed in June.
As the gambling regulator pointed out, the agreement will allow France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal to create an online poker network and merge their player pools. The move is hoped to boost the game of poker in all four countries.
Each of the above-mentioned countries has introduced online gambling regulations to open their markets for international operations at one point or another over the past decade. It is also important to note that poker operations have been enclosed with fences and strict rules that have barred players from accessing larger international pools. According to many, ring-fencing was exactly what prevented online poker from thriving in the countries.
Portugal, in fact, was the last of all four to regulate its iGaming market. New regulations came into effect in the country in 2016 and it was not before the summer of that year when first iGaming licenses were issued. What is more, it was not before December 2016 when an online poker operator entered the country. Bearing this in mind, it is still too early to assess the profitability of Portugal’s online poker market. However, given the fact that the local regulator has entered shared liquidity negotiations is an indication enough that it is cautious not to repeat the mistakes made in other European countries with ring-fenced markets.
Another piece of information from ARJEL’s recent comments on the shared liquidity topic that strikes as particularly important is the fact that it seems the first online poker network will be established between France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. However, aside from these four countries, the UK has also been an active participant in the ongoing shared liquidity negotiations. What is more, discussions have recently been joined by Austria and Germany.
The results from last year’s EU referendum were expected to bring about certain implications for UK’s online gambling industry. And it seems that the country will only watch the establishment of the poker network closely, but will not take any active part in the actual process.
Shared liquidity emerged as an idea several years ago. However, it was not before last summer that any actual actions were taken in that direction. ARJEL initiated talks with its counterparts from European regulated jurisdictions, after the French gambling law was amended so as to allow shared liquidity in case there was interest in the creation of an online poker network.
It is believed that the first such network, with France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal being the participating jurisdictions, will be launched by the end of 2017 or in the first months of 2018.
