PokerStars opens up to the Italian market after being granted a license by the Italian government.
On a press released issued from Rome, PokerStars announced proudly the launch of PokerStars.it, the
“Italian only version of the largest online poker site in the world.” The license, issued by the Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (Autonomous Management of State Monopolies) allows PokerStars to offer real money online poker within certain limits. Thanks to this license, PokerStars.it will offer special tournaments exclusively for their new Italian market, with buy-ins ranging from €0.50 to €100.00.
The Italian version of PokerStars will be led by Fabio Angeli Bufalini, PokerStars’ Italian Country Manager. Angeli sees this move as the first of more to come, and has an optimistic view of the online poker market for the short term:
PokerStars is proud to be entering a flourishing market with this new product. This is a ground breaking time for the online poker industry, and it’s very exciting that the Italian market is pioneering this move. This is the start of a global template which could potentially be adopted in other markets internationally in the next few years.
Team PokerStars includes well known Italian pros Dario Minieri and Luca Pagano, who are understandably excited about these developments. Minieri declared:
Players on PokerStars.it will have the opportunity to win their entry into famous international poker events – like the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. These competitions require players to have the right mix of skill, training, concentration and luck.
With Minieri and Pagano’s endorsement and PokerStars’ formidable marketing machinery, it is expected that 500,000 accounts will be created on the first year after online poker became legalized in Italy, which should create a market estimated at €400 million.
PokerStars is by far the largest online poker room in the world, with 15,000,000 players worldwide and even a Guinness World Record as the first (and only) site to have 160,000 players logged in simultaneously. PokerStars is the official sponsor of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, the European Poker Tour, the Latin American Poker Tour, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and the World Cup of Poker.
Besides Minieri and Pagano, Team PokerStars boasts well-known stars such as Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein and Joe Hachem as well as online prodigies such as Hevad “Rain” Khan and Noah Boeken.
For more information on PokerStars’ Italian venture visit www.pokerstars.it.