In this column, we deliver you the latest and most interesting online poker industry news from across the world and all platforms.
888Poker introduces StreamTeam
Joining the streaming bandwagon is one of the industry’s top poker sites, 888poker. Just this July 1st, the long-time brand officially introduced its very own StreamTeam consisting of five members – Nick “eastyyy22” Eastwood, Ricardo “Mat3usPT” Mateus, David “New_Dave” Gibson, Josh “JoshManleyPoker” Manley, and Adam “Eklo” Tocholke. Interested viewers can head on to the brand’s official channel, 888pokerTV on Twitch, which has now garnered close to 9k followers.
While the marketing strategy isn’t relatively new, the move puts the site aligned with today’s competitors and hopefully brings in more traffic and an increasing audience. Currently, 888poker stands as the 8th ranking poker site in traffic, according to Pokerscout.
KKPoker extends fast-fold format in Omaha, AoF and 6+ Hold’em games
With steady traffic in its fast-fold tables in the past year, KKPoker is taking advantage of its impressive results by introducing the popular format in other games. Regular users of the budding mobile application will be glad to know that the flash format is now available on PLO5, Shortdeck Hold’em, and All-in or Fold tables.
Aside from the added stakes in its NL games, the new additions will be available on the following stakes as well:
- PLO5 – $0.01/$0.02
- 6+ Hold’em – Ante $0.04, $0.2
- AoF – $0,02/$0.04, $0.1/$0.2, $1/$2
Germany’s 5.3% turnover tax forces more operators out of the poker market
Having been put into effect this July 1st, Germany’s latest 5.3% turnover tax order has left major brand name operators with limited options given the situation. While top performing sites PokerStars and Unibet Germany have made significant changes in their game offerings, operators Partypoker and GGPoker have likewise pulled out some of their games following the allegedly excessive tax’s implementation.
Partypoker
In an email to its user base, Partypoker notified its clientele of the newly added 5.3% surcharge to entry fees for Sit-and-Go’s in spite of all current stakes and games remaining available for the time being. High stakes and Fastforward cash games of stakes $2/$5 and upwards will also be removed for its German players.
The brand further highlighted that these adjustments are “the most player-friendly way to implement this legally required change.” Adding, “The online gaming market in Germany will change permanently due to the new legal framework. Nevertheless, we try to meet our obligation as one of the leading providers and therefore have to make the following adjustments.”
GGPoker
Similarly, GGPoker has also recently adopted notable changes which include removing its VIP cash games, including AoF (All-in or Fold) Featured Tables, and high roller tournaments and satellites from its game selection.
“We are working to keep the impact on the players and the ecology as low as possible and will announce our solution in a separate communication in mid-July.”, stated in the site’s notice while further calling out the recent tax order to be “disproportionately high” and “has been copied by other games without any effort to understand how poker works.”
IPoker Network’s skin Betsson has also reportedly made the decision to completely leave the German market and has since followed Betfair Germany’s move to cease operations last week.
“Unfortunately, we will also have to inform you of the closure of our poker product in the German market, due to the new turnover tax of 5.3%. We will review the viability of offering poker to our German customers in the future”, the site noted.
Sale of World Poker Tour finalized
Following a number of delays, the sale of the premier gaming and entertainment brand World Poker Tour has at last, been finalized to become the property of now owner, Element Partners, LLC. The official approval comes in favor of votes tallied from twin shareholder accounts Ourgame International Holdings, Ltd. and Allied Esports Entertainment, Inc.
The final voting for Ourgame was previously accompanied by internal issues over the sale’s proceeds and led to a number of problems including a failed corporate coup. On June 28 however, the company’s nearly 900 million shares voted in favor of the sale by a close margin of 54.4% to 45.6%. With Ourgame’s decision locked, Allied Esports’ final voting session played out soon after via a brief video conference and resulted in a slam dunk towards the sale’s approval.
