When gaming regulators from France, Spain, Portugal and Italy signed an online poker shared liquidity program in 2017, it opened up quite a few options for European players. However, only France and Spain have taken steps towards enabling this shared liquidity.
Pokerstars has taken advantage of the fact that it already had a presence in both countries and became the first online poker operator to launch shared liquidity poker services to France and Spain this week.
Pokerstars first obtained its shared liquidity gaming license from French regulator Autorité de Régulation des Jeux en Ligne (ARJEL) in December 2017.
For Spain, PokerStars already had a license to operate in Spain and Spanish regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) announced on December 29 th that all Spanish licenses would have approval to offer shared liquidity services with France, Portugal and Italy. This ruling came into effect in Jan 2018 and PokerStars was quick to launch its online shared liquidity services as the online poker giant had prepared well in advance for its shared liquidity launch.
In a statement, Guy Templer, the Chief Operating Officer of Stars Interactive Group said
The French and Spanish regulators have done an excellent job in enabling a dramatic improvement in the gaming experience in their jurisdictions. Now French and Spanish players can access a larger player pool with bigger prizes, promotions and a better selection of games, all with the confidence provided by a trusted, licensed operator.
In celebration of this shared liquidity, PokerStars is running the France Espania Hold’em (FRESH) series. This series of tournaments will be exclusive to French and Spanish players and will run from January 28 to February 11. In total, there will be €5 million in guaranteed prize pools for the tournament series which will be sure to please players.
Interested players will also be able to take advantage of exclusive freerolls and other promos to get more bang for their buck during the series. There will also be special Spin & Go FRESH Main Event qualifiers so that players can have a shot at the main event without having to pay the buy-in.
The FRESH series will be one of the many PokerStars tournaments on offer for French and Spanish poker players. They will also be treated to daily tournament schedules with large prize pools thanks to the shared liquidity agreement. Daily tournaments with guaranteed prize pools of €10k, €15k, and €25k are assured while on Sundays. To find out more information, please check the PokerStars website.
