888Poker Debuts in Portugal
UK-listed online gambling operator 888 Holdings has finally been authorized to share liquidity with Spain, six months after receiving a license to operate online poker in Portugal.
Portugal’s Serviço Regulação e Inspeçao de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ) regulatory body issued an online gambling license on January 14th to 888 Portugal Limited.
This license authorized the company to offer online slots, French roulette, and multiple poker variants. Although, the online casino has been live since, 888 held off launching their poker product on the site.
Now, six months after, specifically on June 27th, SRIJ announced that it had issued a license to 888poker for shared liquidity with Spain allowing the online gaming giants to merge the player pools of Portugal and Spain into a new European Shared Liquidity Market.
With this license, 888 can offer shared liquidity in Hold’em and Omaha variants, in cash games and tournaments.
As a result of the new European interstate poker network, Portuguese players will now have a chance to compete against 888poker’s Spanish customers, but also have an opportunity to qualify for a number of online and live events including the World Series of Poker, as well as the World Poker Tour.
With their online poker product launched on 888poker.pt domain, poker players in Portugal’s regulated online market will have an alternative to the Stars Group’s PokerStars, who was the only licensed operator in the market since November 2016.
The operator highlights that not only will this addition of the Portuguese arm of the product offer customers a great availability of games and formats, but it will also increase player liquidity.
