Caesars Interactive Entertainment has entered into a “long term strategic partnership” with French online poker operator LB Poker, it was announced Monday.
CIE – a subsidiary of Caesars created to promote the growth of WSOP and other Caesars brands – will work with LBPoker to create an online platform that “will be a major player in the international online poker market.”
This initiative follows the announcement this week that Caesars has extended their UK software agreement with 888Poker to include US markets.
The partnership will involve software innovations produced by LB Poker. “We are now delighted to build a long term online strategy with LB Poker by jointly developing a proprietary poker platform” said Mitch Garber, Chief Executive Officer of CIE.
The agreement is an extension of an existing partnership: In 2011, LB Poker and parent company Lucien Barriere Hôtels and Casinos struck a deal with Caesars giving them “exclusive rights in France to host the WSOP world poker championships” and a “unique provision” to qualify players online for WSOP events in both Las Vegas and Europe.
LB Poker currently operates BarrierePoker.fr, a small ARJEL-regulated online poker room that heavily promotes the WSOP brand. Incestuously, the poker room used to run on 888poker's software, until recently moving to their own Adobe air client that supports both downloadable and in-browser poker clients.
