A new day is about to dawn for online poker. Okay, am I severely overselling it with that introductory sentence. But still, that WSOP.com and 888 Poker will be facilitating the merger of player pools of New Jersey with those of Delaware and Nevada in about two weeks is a pretty big deal.
There are just four states that have legalized and regulate online poker, but New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada are the only ones to actually have sites up and running (Pennsylvania’s sites should be ready later this year). Delaware and Nevada have shared player pools for quite some time now and needed to do so because of their relatively small populations, but New Jersey had yet to get onboard. And because of New Jersey’s size – 11th in terms of population – getting the Garden State to share its players is important.
In a press release Monday, WSOP.com and 888 Poker announced that they submitted their software for testing to the regulatory agencies of all three states with the hopes of shared liquidity going live on May 1st.
“This has been a huge collaborative effort from all involved and it is important to thank the elected leadership and regulatory authorities in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey for their dedication and diligence to help move online poker forward,” said WSOP.com’s Head of Online Poker Bill Rini in the press release. “Everyone has had the end user in mind throughout this process, and as a result, we believe the United States for the first time in a regulated environment, will have a large-scale multi-state offering that will propel the industry forward as soon as next month.”
WSOP.com, which uses 888 Poker’s software platform, is the only online poker room in Nevada. Delaware has three sites, each affiliated with one of the state’s casino/racetracks. They also all use 888’s software and are for all intents and purposes the same, as they share liquidity. The sites began sharing player pools with WSOP.com Nevada in 2015.
So, though there is competition in New Jersey from the likes of PokerStars and partypoker, 888 Poker/WSOP.com NJ is the only one that could have done this player pool merger, as it is the only one with operations in all three states.
When the merger takes effect, players in Nevada and Delaware will need to download new software and create new accounts. The old software will no longer be in service. No worries, though, as player funds, tournament tickets, and loyalty points will transfer over to the new account. Plus, as the accounts will technically be new, players can take advantage of new player promotions and bonuses.
The upshot of this for New Jersey players, aside from seeing a slight boost in player traffic (the boost will be more significant for Nevada and Delaware players), is that they will be able to compete in the World Series of Poker online bracelet events for the first time.
The WSOP anticipates that the first chance to do this will be Event #10, $365 No-Limit Hold’em, which will take place on June 3rd.