Interactive
Portugal – PokerStars adds Portuguese players to French and Spanish pool
By Phil - 24 May 2018
PokerStars players in Portugal have now joined the existing PokerStars shared player pool between France and Spain.
PokerStars, The Stars Group’s flagship brand, is the first online operator to offer such a shared player pool among the three previously ring-fenced markets, allowing players on the French-, Portuguese- and Spanish-licensed offerings to face each other across real money poker tables.
PokerStars.pt joined the shared player pool following a July 2017 agreement among regulators in Portugal, France, Spain and Italy to form an online poker compact in those countries.
Rafi Ashkenazi, Chief Executive Officer of The Stars Group, said: “Adding Portugal to France and Spain will expand the pool of players in Southern Europe. This is great news for players, who will benefit from larger player pools with bigger prizes, better promotions and a wider selection of games, which we hope will continue to deliver positive results in those markets.”
The January launch of shared liquidity in France and Spain has already had a positive impact for PokerStars and its players. Italian regulators have yet to confirm details of the country’s involvement, but are expected to join the other countries next year.
To celebrate the launch of shared liquidity in Portugal, PokerStars will host a €5m guaranteed prize pool online poker series, known as the Trio Series, with a €500,000 guaranteed Main Event. PokerStars currently anticipates launching the Trio Series in June 2018.
The Trio Series follows the successful France and Spain edition of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) in April, which surpassed its €10m advertised guarantee to reach €11.7m, attracting 37,000 unique entries across more than 100 scheduled events. The FRESH (France Espania Hold’em) Series, which took place from January 28 through February 11, was the first joint series between French and Spanish players and attracted more than 30,000 unique entries across 50 scheduled events and generated a total prize pool of more than €6m.
