The lottery sit and go format continues to spread through the online poker industry as illustrated by a flurry of recent announcements.
In April, PokerStars introduced Spin & Go Omaha, the first time PLO games have been tried in the fast-structure format. The game went live in the dot-com market as well as the French segregated market.
However, operators in both markets were quick to respond with Omaha games of their own, and in addition, PokerStars no longer enjoys a monopoly on lottery sit and go games in New Jersey, with its biggest competitor introducing its own format.
Formats in France
French online poker room Winamax introduced Omaha Expresso a few days ago
The online poker leader in France, which pioneered the format back in 2013, is going head-to-head with PokerStars France with its own offer. Rather than test the waters with a narrow choice of games, Winamax dove straight into Omaha games with five buy-in levels from €1 up to €25. That’s a bigger spread on offer than PokerStars in France, which is concentrating action to three buy-in levels up to €10.
To encourage participation in the new game, Winamax is offering a small promotion this week—any player that manages to three wins in Omaha games will receive a ticket to another game.
Windfalls in Georgia
Betsson-owned independent Georgian online poker room Europebet has also announced Omaha games for its lottery sit and go, dubbed Windfall. Indeed, according to Europebet, the site has offered Omaha lottery games since the day they went live on PokerStars.com, though they waited until this week to promote the launch.
Running all month, Europebet is giving away a total of GEL 75k (~$31k) via “Top Spinners,” a leaderboard promotion where players are awarded points for either entering or winning a Windfall tournament. Every two days GEL 5k will be awarded to the top 40 players, with GEL 1k going to the leaderboard winner.
Europebet operates an independent online poker room using software provided by Connective Games. The “Windfall” game mostly follows the same regular lottery sit and go formula. However, Windfall is unique in allowing players to make deals during jackpot games.
Other Connective Games clients include Pokerdom, Aconcagua, and Spartan Poker and all spread Windfall. However, Europebet is the first to try spreading Omaha tournaments, PRO was informed.
Blast Off in New Jersey
The combined New Jersey online poker network of WSOP and 888 has started to trial lottery sit and gos, making it the second poker network in the state to offer the fast-format game.
BLAST was first introduced on 888’s dot-com online poker room a year ago. While still offering a randomized prize pool for a fast-structure, the short-handed sit and go, BLAST, deviates from the usual format in a couple of key ways: First, the games are four handed, and second, there’s a six minute “game clock.”
If the timer gets to zero before someone has one, then players are forced all in until there’s a victor.
PRO has confirmed that BLAST games are available on both 888 and WSOP at the $1 buy-in level during a trial period. Presumably, the buy-in levels will broaden if the test phase proves a success.
This article originally appeared on Poker Industry PRO and has been republished here as a courtesy to our readers. Please visit Poker Industry PRO for more information on the industry intelligence services that are available, or email sales@pokerindustrypro.com to get a free trial.
