Interactive
France – PokerStars launches shared player pool between France and Spain
By Phil - 17 January 2018
The Stars Group has announced that PokerStars, its flagship brand, has launched a shared player pool between locally licensed poker markets in France and Spain.
PokerStars is the first online poker operator to offer a shared player pool under license in France and Spain, which enables players from both countries to compete against one another at PokerStars.fr and PokerStars.es.
The launch follows the July 2017 agreement concerning online poker liquidity sharing by gaming regulators in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Portugal is expected to join the combined French and Spanish markets later this year, while regulators in Italy have yet to confirm details of the country’s involvement.
“Shared liquidity in these markets will be great for players and the poker category, generally,” said Guy Templer, Chief Operating Officer of Stars Interactive Group, the gaming division of The Stars Group. “We applaud the French and Spanish regulators’ efforts to facilitate and enable a dramatic improvement in the quality and integrity of the gaming experience in their jurisdictions. With combined liquidity, players from France and Spain can access a larger player pool with bigger prizes, promotions and a better selection of games, all with the confidence provided by a trusted, licensed operator.
“We look forward to extending the combined player pool to Italian and Portuguese players, and we offer our full support to the relevant authorities in those countries to do so.”
To celebrate the launch of shared liquidity in France and Spain, PokerStars will be hosting a €5 million guaranteed online poker tournament series, the France Espania Hold’em (FRESH), which will be exclusively available to players based in France and Spain from January 28 – February 11, 2018. As a result of increased liquidity, players will also have access to additional promotions surrounding the FRESH series as well as an enhanced daily tournament offering, bigger prize-pools and guarantees, and potentially larger prizes in the Stars Rewards customer loyalty program.
