PokerStars Celebrates Firsts Sports Bet and New Sportsbook Launches in Beta
After months of announcements and speculations, PokerStars announced on Tuesday that its brand new sports-betting platform is alive and kicking, and that the site has already celebrated the first bet being placed.
Following the plan announced here on PokerNews on Jan. 16 which unveiled Amaya Inc.'s intention to launch a PokerStars-branded sports-betting product by April 2015, the gaming group celebrated its very first step into the sports-betting industry on March 31, a vertical that the company believes may play a great role in the group's future.
Soon to be available from Internet browsers, mobile, and also fully integrated in the new PokerStars 7 client, the brand new PokerStars sportsbook is currently in beta phase, a source at PokerStars told PokerNews. This is the last step before the official launch, which is expected to start within months in some selected markets.
As stated in the operational highlights published by Amaya on Tuesday — when the company also reported record financials and its plan to enter the daily fantasy sports industry — the rollout of the PokerStars web and mobile sportsbook should be completed by the end of 2015.
"The Corporation anticipates PokerStars will launch its beta version of its sports-betting product, available both on the web and in the PS7 client, in certain jurisdictions in the near future, with rollout to other markets across the dot-com network through the next two quarters of 2015," the document from Amaya stated. "The company anticipates launching sports betting on mobile in 2015 as well."
Amaya's CEO David Baazov added on Tuesday: "We have further developed our casino offering through the introduction of live dealer games and table games on mobile, with slots anticipated to roll out on PokerStars through the first half of 2015.
"Thus far, we have seen cross-sell rates and revenue yields above our expectations, with a significant majority of the casino spend coming from new deposits to the platforms. We anticipate the launch of sports betting in certain markets in the coming days with an expansion across the network to take place through the first half of 2015."
He continued: "Going forward, Amaya intends to acquire new customers and gain online gaming market share through the continued expansion of the B2C business in other verticals, including sports betting, casino, social gaming, and daily fantasy sports, which we expect will supplement our current growth plans for our core poker business."
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