Online poker news
Online gaming giant bwin.party reported its 2012 fiscal year financial results Friday, showing disappointing results virtually across the board. Overall revenue came in at €801.6 million, down 2 percent from the previous year. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) fell to €164.9 million, down from €199.3 million in 2011, a 17 percent drop.… Read more »
A new online poker network focused on supporting its member rooms may be close to launch. The Equity Poker Network (EPN), founded by former BetOnline CEO Clive Archer, is touted as a non-profit internet poker network and is eyeing June as the month the virtual cards will be in the air. EPN calls itself a… Read more »
Over six months after taking on the task, the federal government appears to be ready to start paying off players who had their money locked up on the “old” Full Tilt Poker in 2011. The U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, announced on Wednesday that the federal government will… Read more »
Full Tilt Poker, the second largest online poker site in the world, went live with a new software update Monday morning which makes improvements to parts of the software, tweaks tournament functionality, and adds two games to the poker lineup. First the fun part: the games. For those who like the paradox of people who… Read more »
Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings has signed a joint venture with U.S. investment firm Avenue Capital Group to create what would be the first U.S. online poker network. The All American Poker Network (AAPN) will likely operate first on the state level, though will be ready to expand nationally should federal legislation pass that would allow internet… Read more »
The micro-stakes tables became the center of attention at PokerStars Monday as the world’s largest poker room dealt its 95 billionth cash game hand. As it does for every 5 billionth hand, PokerStars held a promotion in which it gave out cash prizes for every millionth or Milestone Hand, starting with hand 94,700,000,000. It all… Read more »
Although the state of New Jersey only passed their online gambling and poker bill earlier this week, one of the major investment firms is already hailing it as a “big boost” to the twelve casinos that operate in Atlantic City. The investment firm Moody’s Investors Service stated that internet gambling would provide “much needed help”… Read more »
PokerStars announced changes to its software and additions to its game offerings this week, slated to become active within the next few days. PokerStars representative Stefan detailed what would be seen in the update on the Two Plus Two poker forum yesterday. The most noticeable changes will be made to the ring game lobby. Currently,… Read more »
Full Tilt Poker announced Friday that is making every tournament on its schedule a guaranteed prize pool tournament, a first for the online poker industry. The new schedule began yesterday, allowing players to enter tournaments with the confidence that a minimum prize pool will always be reached. In a press release, Full Tilt Poker boasted… Read more »
Potentially seeing that citizens of their own state weren’t going to be enough to persuade investment in the industry (and other potential issues), the Nevada Legislature and Governor Brian Sandoval rushed a measure through the Nevada General Assembly today that will allow licensees of the state’s online poker operation to enter into compacts with other… Read more »
In a way, it almost marks the end of what has been a sordid tale that will go down in the annals of poker’s history, for good or for ill. On Tuesday, former World Series of Poker Championship Event winner and Full Tilt Poker board member Chris Ferguson and the attorneys for the U. S.… Read more »
PokerRoom.com is closing down again, this time presumably for good. The one-time internet poker trailblazer announced the decision on its website, giving players little to no notice that it was going to join the likes of Planet Poker as former industry leaders who could not survive in a post-UIGEA world. The message facing visitors to… Read more »
Has it been that long already? It has been seven years since the world’s largest internet poker room, PokerStars, introduced its now-famous Sunday Million tournament. To celebrate, Stars is hosting a special Sunday Million 7th Anniversary tourney and for this party, it’s the host that is giving the gifts. The Sunday Million 7th Anniversary tournament… Read more »
The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) is back for the second time at the resurrected Full Tilt Poker. FTOPS XXII is set to begin on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, and will run two weeks, concluding with the $600 + $40 Main Event on the final day of the month. FTOPS XXII features 38… Read more »
The attention of the United States poker community has been focused on Nevada and New Jersey and this year, and rightly so, as the former has already legalized intrastate online poker and the latter is getting very close. Forgotten in the excitement over the anticipated launch of internet poker in those states is the fact… Read more »
Amaya Gaming announced Monday that it has a signed a memorandum of understanding with Bally Technologies to integrate Amaya’s Ongame poker platform as well as its suite of casino games into Bally’s iGaming Platform. The agreement will allow Bally’s to continue on the path to launching an intrastate online poker site in Nevada. Bally Technologies… Read more »
Online poker site FullTiltPoker.eu went live Monday, pulling players from several countries away from its sister site, FullTiltPoker.com. While the domain names do not share the same suffix, there is virtually no difference between the two sites and players should see almost no changes in their poker experience. The first players to make the shift… Read more »
PokerStars launched a play money poker app on Facebook this week, a move which many speculate is a precursor to an eventual real money companion site to its standard, downloadable poker client. Currently in the beta testing stage, it is inaccessible to new players right now because it has reached its player limit. PokerStars.net on… Read more »
PartyPoker has brought back the “World Domination” promotion, a month-long game in which players will “conquer” cities by earning PartyPoints. There will be 64 cities in all, divided into 16 different countries and four continents. The World Domination promo started Monday, but it runs through the end of the month, so there is plenty of… Read more »
Fantasy sports gaming is a worldwide billion dollar industry. Looking to potentially tap into that market, the Global Poker Index announced yesterday the development of their poker fantasy game which will make its debut with an upcoming international poker tournament. The ownership behind the GPI, Zokay Entertainment, unveiled their game, “Fantasy Poker Manager,” which is… Read more »
CarbonPoker, an online poker room on the Merge Poker Network, announced Tuesday that this will be the last month for its rakeback program. Citing benefits to the overall poker economy, a representative from CarbonPoker also said that rakeback will likely be eliminated across the entire network. Yesterday, CarbonPoker representative “CarbonRyan” posted the news in Two… Read more »
Betfair Poker launched its new poker room on the iPoker Network Tuesday, the first step in move that will eventually see all Betfair traffic removed from the Ongame Network. Having just announced the decision to switch networks about two weeks ago, this would rank as one of the fastest switches we’ve seen in the industry.… Read more »
For years, PokerStars has been the gold standard in online poker. It is a poker room that knows poker; management didn’t just throw together some software, slap a download link on a website, and take it easy. The folks over there understand how the game works and how players think and, in turn, have provided… Read more »
In what might be a potential signal to the United States as it battles with the question of regulated online poker, the French regulatory agency in charge of administering the country’s system admitted recently that there may be a need for relaxing their rules on their country online poker industry to allow for the international… Read more »
PartyPoker announced last week that it will soon make changes to its VIP program, appearing to flatten the VIP structure by eliminating the highest loyalty levels. The initial announcement was made on PartyPoker’s VIP page, but it was tacked onto the bottom of page, making it so that most people would never see it. Most… Read more »
