Poker players from some of the biggest European countries, including France and Spain, have been able to access the PokerStars Europe network for about a month now. However, this shared liquidity network is also accessible for players from the small country of Malta. It’s well-known that Malta provides the home to many online gambling companies and has its own huge licensing jurisdiction too. What might not be so well-known though, is that Malta has been the country that has brought forth several professional online poker players.
Now, players from the Mediterranean island have the option of participating in the pool of shared liquidity that France, Spain, and soon Italy and Portugal all have access to. The only thing that needs to be done is for players from within Malta to open an account at the PokerStars.es platform.
It was just last month that poker tables became available on the network for both French and Spanish players to utilise. This marked a big moment in history for PokerStars, as it became the first operator that managed to merge both its Spanish and French prize pools into one. Not that it didn’t take long enough to get there. The company went through over a year-and-a-half of negotiations to work out feasible regulations that satisfied all criteria.
The new shared liquidity setup was thought up by gambling regulators in both Spain and France, as well as Portugal and Italy. Each of these existed as four of Europe’s segregated poker markets in the online world. An agreement was signed by all four countries, setting things in motion for the project to begin last summer. Portugal will join France and Spain on the network soon enough, although Italy is having a few set backs. Several people have expressed certain concerns about the country’s general election, which has the potential to delay the integration of Italian players.
How Can Players Outside of France and Spain Already Access the PokerStars Europe Network?
PokerStars Europe needs to have that strength of liquidity at the moment. However, it’s quite possible that regulators may not trust that France and Spain can provide enough of this. Therefore, the network could have been opened up to other locations due to this reason.
As it stands, the gambling regulations within Spain dictate that players from other countries are allowed to register accounts at any .es gambling platforms. That being said, the standard version of the PokerStars website which is available in Spanish was only open to those players located within Spain. Once PokerStars Europe launched though, the operators took advantage of Spain’s gambling regulations and allowed other countries to register too.
It is said that this won´t be a permanent option, and once all four countries that signed the agreement are active on the network, PokerStars Europe could limit itself only to players from such. PokerStars Europe currently stands as the third largest online poker network in the world. This is only behind the global PokerStars network and the IDN Poker offering.
