The New Zealand online gambling landscape is going to change significantly on December 1, as this date represents the deadline by which all the providers not in possession of a locally issued license will have to stop serving customers in the country.
According to the most recent report from the country’s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), eleven entities have won the right to apply for the 15 online casino licenses that are up for grabs, but the winner’s list spells bad news for New Zealand online poker players.
As of right now, the only operator on the list that already offers peer-to-peer poker is Stake. Two of the industry giants, GGPoker and PokerStars, that currently cater to NZ players, do not have a direct route to the market, although they could still get in via a partnership with one of the winners.
Only One Clear Candidate for NZ Online Poker
Although it comes as something of a surprise, Stake is the only name on the license winner’s list that has a ready poker client integrated into their online casino platform. So, after the December 1 deadline, the operator could become the only legal peer-to-peer poker operator in the country.
While Stake is a big name in online gambling, their poker product is still more of an afterthought. The international site features around 300 average concurrent cash game players and 8,000 daily tournament entries.
That said, in a recent statement, the company confirmed they were excited about fresh opportunities in the newly regulated NZ igaming market.
For serious poker players in the country, though, this shift would represent a big blow. For a long time, international operators were allowed to operate in New Zealand without any problems, and New Zealanders were a part of the international player pool.
Things are about to change quite drastically in just over a month, with the number of legal and regulated options quite possibly reduced to just one.
Things Could Change Still
While Stake is the only operator with a peer-to-peer poker room readily in place, there are other winners that could get in the mix in one way or another.
Entain, which, among other brands, owns PartyPoker, won two licenses, and the company is using them to run two online casinos. Since poker falls under the umbrella of online casino gambling, Entain could run a PartyPoker skin under any of these two casino brands (BlackRush or TAB), presumably without needing any additional licenses.
But there are two names that the players are most interested in, and these are GGPoker and PokerStars.
While PokerStars or any entities connected to the brand did not win any of the licenses, the operator has started offering its network to third-party operators in September. This means that any of the winners could partner up with PokerStars to launch online poker in New Zealand, probably as a franchise of a brand.
GGPoker already has experience partnering up with local brands, such as Denmark’s Danske Spil and Lebanon’s Poker Arabia. So, one of the licensees could partner up with GGPoker to run an online poker skin under their own brand.
It is worth noting that there are three licenses that have been issued to the operators whose identity remains undisclosed at this moment, and these could be linked to GG or PokerStars. If not, however, these operators will not be able to apply for a license, and they will have to stop operating in New Zealand on December 1. In that case, their only route to reentry would be through a partnership with one of the winners.
As things stand, Stake is the only peer-to-peer online poker operator on course to receive the license unless there is some significant news coming out over the next few weeks.
