Really, if you want to maximize the value of anything poker, the US has to play a part in that. Obviously, we want to be in the US in the future.
WPT Global (WPTG) President Alex Scott said his company has the US “very much on our radar” but cautioned that there would no immediate launch state-side.
Scott told pokerfuse in an exclusive interview last month that WPTG was obviously thinking about entry into the United States, though its first step into a regulated market would be somewhere with international liquidity.
“The US is the home of poker,” Scott said. “There is no market like the US when it comes to poker. People grow up playing it. It’s really part of the national culture.”
“Really, if you want to maximize the value of anything poker, the US has to play a part in that,” he added. “Yes, obviously, we want to be in the US in the future.”
However, he said the company is looking at several months of work — involving software development, real-time integration, and organizational changes, among other things — before entering any regulated markets, and closed ones like the US will not be top priority.
“It’s a slow process,” Scott said. “There’s an enormous amount of work required to enter all of the regulated markets that are out there. We definitely aspire to be in as many of those regulated markets as we can, but we also know it’s going to be a very difficult challenge.”
- Use bonus code
FUSEBONUS - Generous welcome bonus
- Quality mobile app
Cautious Approach to Regulated Markets
Even though we’ve got aspirations to enter all of the regulated markets in the future, one of the reasons why we haven’t done that as quickly as you might expect is because we’ve wanted to maintain that pace of innovation and that ability to experiment and try things.
WPT Global is the third largest online poker site in the world in terms of cash game traffic, according to the latest figures. Yet, to date, it has not entered any regulated markets — it is limited to legal, “grey” markets, like Canada (outside Ontario) and South America, serving them from their offshore license in Curacao. Entry into regulated markets would happen in the next year, Scott said.
Scott clarified it would consider any regulated market carefully and cautioned that, as soon as the company started down that road, it would hamper its fast development process.
“Regulation was one of the things that slowed us down the most,” he said, talking of his time at Microgaming. “When we had a new feature that we wanted to release, it had to go through a certification process. That process could take weeks sometimes. It definitely slows you down.”
“Even though we’ve got aspirations to enter all of the regulated markets in the future, one of the reasons why we haven’t done that as quickly as you might expect is because we’ve wanted to maintain that pace of innovation and that ability to experiment and try things.”
The UK, one of the world’s largest regulated online poker markets, was “at least a year away,” Scott said. Noting that it was “one of the very toughest markets to get into.”
One of our advantages is our player pool … as soon as we enter a regulated market like France, some of that disappears and we’re starting from scratch.
The other one being, he added, New Jersey — so there should be expectations of an imminent US launch.
Segregated Markets Further Away
If or when WPT Global does enter the USA, it would almost certainly look to launch in several US markets at the same time. States with shared liquidity currently available to operators are Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and West Virginia. All four states are signatories of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), an interstate gaming compact that supports online poker.
Delaware is also a member of the compact, but the state awarded Rush Street Interactive (RSI) an exclusive igaming contract.
“As a business, it makes the most sense to enter markets where we have shared liquidity. One of our advantages is our player pool … [but] as soon as we enter a regulated market like France, some of that disappears and we’re starting from scratch.”
It is the same approach that is expected from RSI. The company purchased the Run it Once Poker platform, and is expected to go live with US online poker this year. A tandem launch in Michigan, New Jersey, and potentially Delaware, seems likely.
Scott gave a brutally honest assessment of the state of online poker in the US. Since the Black Friday crackdown in 2011, there are only eight states which regulate real money online poker. Of those, only three states currently have shared liquidity and active online operators — Michigan, Nevada, and New Jersey.
“I’m really disappointed with the way that regulation has taken shape in the US,” Scott said. “The best we have is a few of the smaller states sharing liquidity with each other and then a few segregated states. It’s a huge disappointment.”
At the moment, PokerStars has taken advantage of MSIGA by combining its player pools in Michigan and New Jersey. WSOP has also combined player pools in Nevada and New Jersey.
