PokerStars, the online poker brand, has launched a shared player pool between licensed markets in France and Spain.
The Stars Group, within which PokerStars is the flagship brand, becomes the first online poker operator to take this step. It means that players from both countries can compete against each other through PokerStars.fr and PokerStars.es.
The launch follows last July’s agreement over liquidity sharing by regulators in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Portugal is expected to join this combined market later in 2018, with Italy’s regulators yet to confirm details.
Guy Templer, chief operating officer at Stars Interactive Group, the gaming division of The Stars Group, said: “Shared liquidity in these markets will be great for players and the poker category, generally. We applaud the French and Spanish regulators’ efforts to facilitate and enable a dramatic improvement in the quality and integrity of the gaming experience in their jurisdictions.
“We look forward to extending the combined player pool to Italian and Portuguese players and we offer our full support to the relevant authorities in those countries to do so.”
To celebrate the launch, PokerStars will host a €5m guaranteed online poker tournament series, the France Espania Hold’em, which will be exclusively available to players based in France and Spain from January 28 to February 11.
