PokerStars and Full Tilt will join player pools

Amaya, which owns such popular brands as PokerStars and Full Tilt, decided to join the pool of players in both rooms.

Amaya, the owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt brands, confirmed yesterday that it will merge their player pools into a single platform and this will give them a chance to provide players with better experience and to introduce all the novelties quicker and more effectively.

In yesterday’s announcement of the Canadian company Amaya, which owns the brand of PokerStars, it has confirmed that next spring PokerStars plans to merge with its smaller brother Full Tilt. The two brands were chased away from the American market due to the accusation of providing illegal gambling options there.

Rational Group, which owns 70% of the global online poker market, operates these two sites after an unprecedented deal worth $4.9 billion, but the share of these 70% is not in equal shares. The share of PokerStars is 68% of the online businesses. On average, each week 17,500 players participate in cash games in the poker room. The Full Tilt has only 850 players for the same period of time.

Once thriving Full Tilt, after the acquisition in 2012 by the Rational Group, it is not functioning at peak of its performance, and the major changes in its cash-game tables might have caused this. Amaya has recognized this in its statement yesterday, though, and insisted that the site remains profitable.

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Combining the brands into one company will give the possibility to programmers to focus their attention on the technological development, to concentrate on improving the quality of the poker superfoods. Currently, they have to share their time and energy between the two sites.

Executive Director of the Rational Group Rafi Ashkenazi said:

“The benefits for the players will be to increase the gaming pools and prize funds, as well as in the expanding selection of games. It will also increase our mobility, because we will be able to focus on technological innovation of one platform, rather than two, which can be updated quickly and without unnecessary delay to assert itself in both new and existing markets.”

What does this mean for us?

For players who have accounts on one or both sites, it will mean the following: their accounts, including the money there. So they will have a single account. Further it will be used for playing both sites. Full Tilt players will be a part of PokerStars VIP-program, and the won in both showrooms points will be combined, which will determine the final VIP-status.