A PokerStars Online Sportsbook Should Increase Global Revenues Significantly for Amaya Gaming
If and when PokerStars ever wins approval to enter the New Jersey gaming market, the world’s #1 poker site will be able to accept sports betters, too. PokerStars announced today that it intends to develop online sportsbook software.
The announcement came amidst word that PokerStars intends to develop mobile apps for casino gamblers and sports betters, too. Sometime before the summer of 2015, gamblers should be able to use PokerStars for the three major forms of online poker (poker, casino games, and sports bets), as well as their mobile gaming counterparts.
PokerStars Sportsbook
The various software upgrades fulfill promises made by Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov in August 2014, just after his company purchases Rational Media, the parent company to PokerStars and FullTilt Poker. At the time, Baazov said that his company wanted to take greater advantage of PokerStars’s brand name.
The gaming CEO hinted that there would be attempts to cash-in on its name recognition. Now, readers understand what Amaya Gaming’s CEO was discussing. Baazov said, with the trendline of gaming regulation worldwide, PokerStars had the opportunity to leverage its brand name and customer loyalty.
Sports Betting Worldwide
He clearly referenced using the poker site to create a major competitor in the global sportsbetting industry. The United Kingdom and Europe has several major sportsbooks and sports clearinghouses which have pushed for legalized sports betting throughout the region. Bookmaker sites, the equivalent of sportsbooks in Australia and New Zealand, have helped developed advanced sports betting laws in those countries.
Under such conditions, it makes sense to offer all three forms of gambling to their customer base: poker, table games & slot machine gaming, and sports wagers. Thus, the cost of developing sportsbook software is offset by the advantages of convincing PokerStars large customer database to make sports bets at the PokerStars sportsbook.
Sports Betting in New Jersey
Not all jurisdictions have legalized sports betting, of course. Due to the 1961 Wire Act, sports betting over telephone lines and other electronic wire services (like the Internet) is illegal. The 2006 UIGEA made it illegal for electronic payment services to support illegal sports betting sites, so the current laws of the United States are clear that sports betting on the Internet is illegal. PokerStars and Amaya Gaming won’t be able to offer sports wagers to American gamblers.
That might not always be the case, though. Already, New Jersey is championing the case of legalized sports betting at land-based gaming facilities. The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act bans sports betting in 46 U.S. states, with Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon the only exceptions to that law. But a key court case set to be heard by the U.S. Third Court of Appeals could change how the PASPA is interpreted.
Also, several knowledgeable gaming executives have said they see sports betting being legalized on a 50-state basis in the United States in the next few years. Once brick-and-mortar betting is legal, it’s only a matter of time before the online sports betting laws will be changed–according to conventional logic. The trends, even in the United States, are towards more and not less legal gambling. When the laws are changed, PokerStars will be well-placed to be a major competitor in that market.
PokerStars in New Jersey
The key question is whether PokerStars will be allowed to compete. Due to its accepting US players after the UIGEA was passed in 2006, PokerStars has been labeled a “bad actor” by some American lawmakers. At the moment, the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement has suspended the licensing process for PokerStars in the New Jersey market. New Jersey State Senator Ray Lesniak has said that PokerStars is likely to be licensed in March 2015.
Internet poker legislation has stalled in California, mainly because the Native American gaming authorities of that massive state can’t decided whether bad actor legislation should be included in their legal framework–all to the detriment of PokerStars. Pennsylvania lawmakers have gone even further, suggesting PokerStars be banned in perpetuity, though this legislation has even more ironing-out before it passes. Nevada has banned PokerStars, for bad actor reasons.
Native Gaming Interests Oppose PokerStars
In many cases, jurisdictions with powerful land-based casino interests–the Las Vegas Strip gaming companies in Nevada and the Indian gaming tribes in California–are the places of most danger to PokerStars. Those regions have gaming interests with a lot of money to lobby politicians, so they want to keep a potential rival like PokerStars out of their territory. Thus, they use the Black Friday scandal to ban PokerStars from those states.
Whether Amaya Gaming will be able to change the equation for PokerStars and FullTilt Poker remains to be seen. Amaya Gaming has a good reputation in the United States. It holds 60 U.S. licenses, and thus has a good relationship with many American regulatory agencies. So the investment in new online gambling software could position Amaya Gaming’s most famous and controversial brand to take advantage, if that brand is ever licensed over a wide area in the United States.
