- Mattingley also confirmed that the company would launch its own branded poker room in the Nevada market at the end of this year or early 2015.
- The new room would share liquidity with WSOP Nevada and a new Treasure Island skin.
- Cross-border liquidity with Delaware also expected.
Brian Mattingley, CEO of 888 Holdings PLC., confirmed in an interview with Steve Ruddock at Bluff.com that the company will launch its own 888 branded poker room in the Nevada market.
The new poker room can be expected in the last quarter of this year or early 2015, according to Mattingley.
Along with the new 888 room will be the launch of the All American Poker Network (AAPN) in Nevada.
888 already provides the software for WSOP.com Nevada, and will power a Treasure Island site as well. The three sites will all share liquidity on the AAPN in Nevada.
Interstate Liquidity Sharing
Much like the way lotteries benefit from attracting more players with larger prize pools by offering their games to players in multiple states, online poker also stands to benefit from such liquidity sharing.
The upcoming launch of the AAPN in Nevada will lead to the implementation of cross-border liquidity sharing with Delaware, Mattingley stated.
The two states currently have an agreement in place to allow the sharing of liquidity for online poker operators that hold licenses in both states.
The agreement “authorizes internet poker operators in Delaware and Nevada to open up their games to players in both states,” Governor Jack Markell of Delaware stated after signing the historic deal earlier this year.
New Jersey and Liquidity Sharing
Nevada and New Jersey launched a program last week that links progressive slot machines in both states, but currently there is no agreement in place to share online poker liquidity across state borders.
Partypoker and Borgata Poker currently share a player pool within the state.
The prospect of shared liquidity between the AAPN New Jersey and WSOP New Jersey is tantalizing, since the combined network would instantly be the market leader, displacing the partypoker Borgata partnership.
Though no current plans exist, Mattingley told Ruddock, “they would like to explore it,” with the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) being final arbiter of the decision.
