Partypoker primed for Italy relaunch
GVC-owned poker brand to join French and Spanish liquidity pools “in next few weeks” before returning to Italy by 2019
Partypoker will relaunch in the Italian market by the end of this year, EGR Intel has learned.
The GVC-owned brand pulled out of Italy two years ago but the operator applied for three separate licences during the regulatory application window which expired in March.
Two were licence extensions for bwin and Gioco Digitale, while the other was obtained with a view to relaunching partypoker in the country.
Partypoker group head Tom Waters confirmed the launch would occur before the end of 2018, irrespective of Italy’s involvement in the European shared poker liquidity agreement.
Partypoker group head Tom Waters
“We have applied for a licence to move partypoker back into the Italian market,” said Waters.
“I’m not sure exactly when we will relaunch, but it is unlikely to be any time soon.
“We are going to relaunch in Italy whether or not they decide to join the shared liquidity pool; that isn’t the be all and end all for us.
“Obviously it would be much better for us if they do because we could have the same product across several markets, but it doesn’t change our strategy as we still plan to delve back into that market.”
The partypoker.fr and partypoker.es domains are currently live in France and Spain respectively but the product offering is limited compared to the partypoker.com site.
Waters revealed to EGR that the brand is in the final stages of completing the technical set-up required to join the shared poker liquidity pool and he expects the shared service to go live soon.
“We will go live with our shared services in France and Spain during the next couple of weeks and that will involve sharing cash games and tournaments,” said Waters.
“We will pool the liquidity for both, but what you are likely to see is a relatively muted launch because May is a bad time for us to do anything really.
“Everybody disappears off the World Series of Poker Tour and it’s the summer, so we will make some changes before launch but nothing too significant.
“There will be a more sustained focus from us at the end of the summer, particularly on Spain and France where we will take a lot of our learnings from the .com site.
“We want to export that to our European platforms in the hope of seeing similar growth there,” he added.