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PokerStars Receives First Shared EU Liquidity License

A few years back, France, Portugal, Italy and Spain closed their borders and separate licenses were required for poker operators in these four countries. However, in July this year, an agreement was made between the countries for a shared liquidity scheme.

What this scheme does is presents players in France, Portugal, Italy and Spain an ability to play in cross-border games provided that the software is accepted by authorities in all four countries. The move would also give all four countries a much larger database of poker players and subsequently a massive boost in revenues.

In a recent development, PokerStars’ parent company The Stars Group has received an approval from French regulator ARJEL (Authorite de Regulation des Jeux en Ligne) to be a part of the envisioned shared liquidity agreement. They became the first online poker operator to receive its license to operate in this scheme.

PokerStars is an online poker market leader and they are the only to have set up in all four countries of this shared liquidity scheme. The Stars Group will have to inform ARJEL of any software changes made by them in the future, and this will have to be approved by regulators of the other three countries as well.

The scheme was set to be launched by 2017, but due to delays from Italy’s end, the expected date has been pushed further down to early 2018. According to reports, Spain will be the next country to act, with their authority DGOJ (Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego) already have announced that they will be accepting and reviewing applications very soon.

If everything goes as per plan, player and prize pool sharing between the countries France, Italy, Spain & Portugal could be a reality in the next couple of months. Keep watching GutshotMagazine.com for all updates on this story, and also for other updates from the world of poker.

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