Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 2432
PokerStars has bought shares in London casino The Hippodrome. Today it has been revealed they plan to open their own branded brick-and-mortar poker room next year.
Speaking to PokerFuse Eric Hollresier, Head of Corporate Communications at PokerStars, said the company plans to upgrade the Hippodrome poker room and start their poker schedule in early 2013.
He also added that PokerStars will be providing the software for a future Hippodrome online poker site.
It was also announced yesterday in a separate communication that Microgaming will be providing the online gaming software for the Hippodrome's casino brand.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
How obvious that business is booming at Poker Stars. The poker room in London is gonna be the first one probably. If it goes well i see them opening more in major cities where poker has a big audience.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
well well well- nice move, didn't see that coming, but surely this has lots of potential. considering what a powerhouse pokerstars is online, how many players they have and can reach- this looks a sure winner of an investment- very easily this can be expanded and we can see a chain of pokerstars casinos around the world
Not a bad initiative at all. I also wish they would expand to other major cities across Europe. For sure i would visit them if they open one in my country. They seem thrustworthy and loaded as hell. Those two attracts me to them even more. Hope they'll profit in London and expand very soon. There aren't many good places to play live poker in my country so i guess that would make poker even more popular around here.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
Interesting concept.... taking online poker into the real world and getting bums on seats. It will be interesting to see how it works and what type of games they will play. There will n o doubt be online to real promos on the way! Good old PS.
Joined: Feb '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 46 (M)
Posts: 48
i know they have already run a live poker room for tournaments in macau, i think they moved it recently. Anyway they obviously know how popular poker is in London and want to get in on the act. i've played a bit of cash at the hippodrome since it's grand opening and it was ok , nice decor and hot waitresses but they have no tournaments at present, fox poker club is king in that respect, but i'll be interested to see how it goes for them and will definately play a tourny there. who knows maybe they are planning to bring the WSOPE back over
Joined: Jun '10
Location: Belgium
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 1457
Posted by uhhcallmi: Damn, they just stole my plan
i wonder if they will get licenses to do this on a larger scale all over europe....
for holland , i think they are not allowed to open such place...the government has al legal gambling in there own wallet,,,
unless they hire some very good lawyers and find a gap in the law-system.
for the near future i expect they will not get a licence,,,but we will all see how this develops.
Just to inform you, Pokerstars already works together with a casino in Belgium to get their license there. To be a legal pokersite in Belgium you have to work together with a real casino in Belgium. That s also the reason that there will be no license for fulltiltpoker in Belgium as they do not wanne pay twice for the same area. read : belgian players do have to play at pokerstars and are not welcome at fulltilt
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
If PS starts directing the business also to the live poker, the company can grow to an unimaginable size. Think about this: they launch the satellites on the site, than they also command all of the live tourney logistics, as well as all the profits it generates. It can seem similar to what happens today, this room is the first step of the PS live spaces throughout the world. They can get to a point of stopping partnerships they may have with other companies (real casinos) and they can start working on a funny type of subsistence economy – they work for themselves without needing anyone else, except players, that are the grass and the flowers and the trees that grow on their land and gives them the “fruits” and “vegetables”. Looks something like Coca-Cola, but like if the juice company also had its own selling stores all over the world. Money generates money, where am I in all of this? I think i’m just a weed…
Joined: Feb '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 62 (M)
Posts: 169
sounds good esp if they do live satts for the bigger online specials, also could open rooms across many EU cities to match EPT tournees..GG POKERSTARS WILL BE WATCHING N WAITING!!!
