Only a day after PokerStars announced their shared tables for the Spanish and the French, they already surprised the community with some shocking moves.
The Stars Group (the company which owes PokerStars) issued a statement, addressed to the Italian regulators, in which they urge them to create the conditions for their players to join the Franco-Spanish tables.
“We’re looking forward to extending [the French-Spanish player pool] to Italian and Portuguese players, and offer our full support to the relevant authorities in those countries to do so,” said Guy Templer, Chief Operating Officer of The Stars Group's gaming division.
After France, Spain, Italy and Portugal signed a deal last year to allow liquidity sharing the process started to slow down in Italy and in Portugal as well. Even though some operators offer games in Italy, they're not allowed to share their Italian player pool with other countries.
It looks like the leaders at Stars believe, Italy could join the shared pools without much effort if the authorities were to work on the issue faster. “In particular, we would encourage Italy to resume their drive toward shared liquidity which after a good start has recently slowed considerably,” - added Mr Templer.
“We believe that the newly shared liquidity will be large enough to accommodate foreign players without negatively impacting the ecosystem,” - posted a staff member of PokerStars' on a French community forum.
In reality, this move is not as shocking as it might seem. Several operators (Stars included) had already let their players join their French and Spanish pools before. In earlier cases, PokerStars didn't advertise this option heavily but those who knew about it could easily join the games.
Some countries seem to be excluded, though, as players from Denmark, Belgium, Romania, Estonia and the UK are not allowed to play.
Whether these changes will have an effect on the eco-system is yet to be seen, but as a representative of the site stated: “We will monitor it closely and make changes if necessary,”.
These steps are definitely joyful and we can hopefully see a globally shared player pool in the future.
See our ongoing promotions here!
Contact us here!
The Stars Group (the company which owes PokerStars) issued a statement, addressed to the Italian regulators, in which they urge them to create the conditions for their players to join the Franco-Spanish tables.
“We’re looking forward to extending [the French-Spanish player pool] to Italian and Portuguese players, and offer our full support to the relevant authorities in those countries to do so,” said Guy Templer, Chief Operating Officer of The Stars Group's gaming division.
After France, Spain, Italy and Portugal signed a deal last year to allow liquidity sharing the process started to slow down in Italy and in Portugal as well. Even though some operators offer games in Italy, they're not allowed to share their Italian player pool with other countries.
It looks like the leaders at Stars believe, Italy could join the shared pools without much effort if the authorities were to work on the issue faster. “In particular, we would encourage Italy to resume their drive toward shared liquidity which after a good start has recently slowed considerably,” - added Mr Templer.
Guy Templer
“We believe that the newly shared liquidity will be large enough to accommodate foreign players without negatively impacting the ecosystem,” - posted a staff member of PokerStars' on a French community forum.
In reality, this move is not as shocking as it might seem. Several operators (Stars included) had already let their players join their French and Spanish pools before. In earlier cases, PokerStars didn't advertise this option heavily but those who knew about it could easily join the games.
Some countries seem to be excluded, though, as players from Denmark, Belgium, Romania, Estonia and the UK are not allowed to play.
Whether these changes will have an effect on the eco-system is yet to be seen, but as a representative of the site stated: “We will monitor it closely and make changes if necessary,”.
These steps are definitely joyful and we can hopefully see a globally shared player pool in the future.
See our ongoing promotions here!
Contact us here!
