FanDuel officially has another string to its online gambling bow in the U.S. as PokerStars relaunched as a rolled-in product in three states on Wednesday.
First announced in early March, Flutter has integrated its longstanding online poker brand into its sports betting and iCasino giant FanDuel. ‘PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel‘ launched in Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania on April 1. PokerStars’ previous U.S. iteration shut down on March 31 to make way for the new version.
“The launch of PokerStars exclusively on FanDuel brings together two of the most iconic names in gaming and represents a major step forward for online poker in North America,” said General Manager Aaron Dugan in a press release. He added that the new platform will combine PokerStars’ poker expertise and experience with FanDuel’s scale, reach and brand recognition in the U.S.
Multiple verticals with a shared account
The PokerStars product will stay largely the same but will now be available via a dedicated, FanDuel-branded poker app and desktop site as well as integrated within the FanDuel app, placing PokerStars poker games alongside FanDuel Casino’s popular slots and other content. New and existing PokerStars players in all three states need to sign up and create a new account.
Once they do, players can take advantage of a shared account and wallet across numerous product verticals: poker, casino and FanDuel Sportsbook. The U.S. sports betting market leader will likely see opportunities for cross-promotion and cross-sell between PokerStars and its other product verticals.
As part of the move to FanDuel, Pennsylvania has joined the player pool that was already shared between Michigan and New Jersey, expanding peer-to-peer liquidity to three states. The three Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) member states will share a pool with larger prizes and a bigger selection of tournaments and cash games.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board published a notice on Wednesday to confirm that it approved FanDuel to offer multi-state internet poker, effective April 1. FanDuel’s operator partner for poker will be MotorCity Casino. MGCB Executive Director Henry Williams noted that FanDuel is “a well-established operator in the Michigan gaming market.”
The resurgent PokerStart will compete with other multi-state online poker brands such as BetMGM Poker, BetRivers Poker and WSOP Online. It is is rolling out a series of promotions to mark the launch, including the return of the Sunday Million tournament series that offers combined guaranteed prize pools of $1m. PokerStars will also offer a no-buy-in No Sweat Series from April 6-12.
FanDuel’s Ontario PokerStars launch TBD
‘PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel’ will also launch in the Canadian regulated iGaming province of Ontario at an undisclosed date.
Ontario cannot join the shared player pool due to multi-jurisdictional play currently being prohibited north of the border, although the question of whether or not that can change is the subject of a Supreme Court of Canada appeal.
FanDuel’s US product keeps evolving
Flutter acquired PokerStars in 2020. After keeping that brand separate and distinct from FanDuel for five years, PokerStars is officially the latest product offered by the U.S. market leader.
FanDuel already offers sports betting and online casino through one united platform, in markets such as PokerStars’ three states where both verticals are available. It also has its daily fantasy sports product, plus the peer-to-peer online skill gaming offering FanDuel Faceoff, and since December has operated its FanDuel Predicts prediction markets business in numerous states.
Last week, the company announced it will be shutting down its peer-to-peer prop-style pick’em fantasy game FanDuel Picks after just a year in the market, in order to “reallocate resources to other areas of our business where we see the greatest opportunity to serve our customers”. FanDuel Picks was live in 17 states at the time of that announcement.
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