PokerStarsNJ.com Set To Launch on March 21st

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Friday, February 26th, 2016 | Written by Stephen Smith

On September 2015, the Division of Gaming Enforcement granted PokerStars a license to offer its product in New Jersey, with Amaya CEO David Baazov subsequently predicting a launch date in the first half of 2016. True to forecast, on Thursday Amaya announced PokerStarsNJ.com would now be up and operational by March 21st, with an Amaya company statement explaining:

“Amaya Inc today announced that it expects to initially launch its PokerStars brand in New Jersey on Monday, March 21, 2016.”

Initial Soft Launch Period

Ahead of its March 21st launch, PokerStars will be examining the site’s functionality by testing it during a soft launch phase. This is likely to take place a week or so before its official launch date, and as the Amaya company statement makes clear:

“Amaya currently expects to conduct an interim testing period with the DGE and a beta period for a limited player base beginning in mid-March.”

Site Details

The New Jersey site will be hosted on PokerStarsNJ.com, and will be available for New Jersey players across a range of platforms, including desktop, tablet and mobile. In addition to its popular products, such as Spin & Go’s and the Sunday Special Tournament, PokerStars will also be offering a selection of casino games, including Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, and Slots.

As part of its initial launch, PokerStars has already announced a special $25,000 freeroll tournament called ‘We Are In New Jersey Freeroll’ that is set to run on March 27th, and will be available to anyone who opens an account with PokerStars in the first week of its launch.

Market Potential

While there are currently five operators offering online gambling in the Garden State, just Borgata and Caesars also offer online poker. At present, the market is roughly split 60/40 between the Caesars/WSOP/888 network, and the Borgata/bwin.party/PalaCasino partnership. In terms of online traffic, that translates as an average of 190 cash players over a 7-day period for WSOP/888, and 130 players for Party Borgata, according to PokerScout.

While PokerStars’ New Jersey entry is expected to generate a slight short term expansion of the market, in the longer term the site will have to face the reality of operating in a limited sized state with a population of just 9 million people. Therefore, PokerStars will most likely cannibalize the customers already playing on New Jersey’s other sites, both of which have received their fair share of complaints from less than impressed players.

Resorts and PokerStars Partnership

In New Jersey, online gambling operators are required to partner with a land-based casino. In the case of PokerStars, the site’s preferred partner of choice is the Resorts Casino Hotel, which in 1978 became famous for being the first legal casino to open up outside of Nevada in the US. Resorts is a late comer to New Jersey’s online gambling market, though, having only launched its product in February of last year, but already it has made major strides and is currently generating in excess of $1 million in monthly iGambling revenues. Commenting on the upcoming launch of PokerStars, the casino’s owner Morris Bailey said:

“Resorts Casino Hotel continues to be the preferred Atlantic City partner and home for outstanding global brands. First with Mohegan Sun and Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville and now, with PokerStars joining that portfolio, Resorts is poised to offer players the best online and bricks & mortar casino experiences anywhere. We expect that the launch of PokerStars will further spur the positive momentum we have already made in the New Jersey online gaming market.”

World’s Biggest Poker Site

PokerStars is the world’s largest poker site with more than 100 million registered customers, and its main site boasting around 17,000 daily cash game players, anda 24-hour peak of around 26,368 players. In addition, PokerStars has numerous different operations based in the ring-fenced markets of various countries across the globe, including Italy (1,300 players), France (1,250), and Spain (900).

PokerStars experienced exponential growth after PartyPoker felt compelled to leave the US market in 2006 following the passage of the UIGEA. PokerStars, on the other hand, continued operating stateside and managed to dominate the market until the Department of Justice seized its domain in 2011. The following year, PokerStars agreed a $731 million settlement with the DoJ, and in 2014, Amaya Gaming Group bought out the company for $4.9 billion, thus paving the way for a PokerStars to shed its “bad actor” label, and make a much anticipated return to the US.