PokerStars may have been the first online poker room to provide shared-liquidity between Spanish and French players, but PartyPoker isn’t going to let that platform have all of the enjoyment. Why? Because on June 4, PartyPoker launched its own shared-liquidity site for players from these two countries to participate in too.
In June of 2017, the gaming regulator of France – ARJEL – announced that its own country had signed an agreement with Spain, Portugal and Italy to be able to share their online poker pools. Prior to this time, all four countries had shut off their poker markets, keeping poker play within their respective nations. However, with the signing of the aforementioned agreement, a new European shared network was able to be brought into play between them.
It wasn’t until January of 2018 that France and Spain first began operating in such a way though, thanks to the start-up of the previously mentioned PokerStars network. Portugal recently entered into this shared-liquidity network as well, meaning that Italy is the only country of the four that is yet to step its foot into such. However, while things seem to be running slowly in terms of Italy’s entry, PartyPoker is now ready to begin offering its own poker room to the network. The site has operated online poker sites in both Spain and France before the launch of the shared-liquidity agreement.
France and Spain Gain Further Traction in the Network
With the inclusion of PartyPoker’s own cross-country shared-liquidity pool, French players are now able to enjoy a multi-table tournament schedule. This is already twice the size of the tournaments that were available to online poker players within the country before, thanks to the PartyPoker site ensuring that it guarantees over €1 million in winnings each week. And this is all from buy-ins that range between €0.55 and €250.
This new schedule also incorporates over €600,000 in guaranteed prize winnings, thanks to the inclusion of the Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments. Players from both Spain and France are now able to access the new platform, which goes by the title of partypoker.eu. There are various short-handed tournaments on the new schedule as well, including offerings like the “Monster”, “Shield” and “Bazooka”.
And while France may have had prior opportunities to play in multi-table tournaments, it will mark the first time that Spain can participate in such. Cash games were the only thing that the PartyPoker Spanish site offered previously.
Speaking of the launch of the shared-liquidity site, Tom Waters, the Managing Director of PartyPoker, said that it represents somewhat of a milestone when it comes to poker players from these two countries. Now, he continued, players from Spain and France can looks forward to “greater variety, reduced rake and bigger and better games” with the integration of the new PartyPoker platform.
