WSOP.fr awarded licence by ARJEL
The site - created via the partnership between Caesars and Barriere - will be able to offer real-money poker and WSOP-branded tournaments.
WSOP.fr, the poker site created via the partnership between Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) and Groupe Lucien Barrière, has been awarded an online gaming licence by French regulator ARJEL.
The skin of the Barrierepoker.fr platform will offer real-money poker as well as WSOP-branded tournaments and qualifiers into WSOP events in Europe and the US.
CIE announced the deal last week alongside the news the World Series of Poker Europe would move from London to Barriere’s Cannes casinos as part of an online-offline tie with the French casino group.
The BarrierePoker.fr joint venture between Lucien Barierre and former lottery monopoly operator La Francaise des Jeux received its licence from the French regulator in July 2010, launching later that year on software provided by developer MKO Games, the company Barriere engaged to power its LeCroupier.com UK-facing 3D casino. FDJ partnered with Barriere for poker in France despite signing an earlier deal with California-based CyberArts.
Caesars, under its previous incarnation as Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, launched a WSOP-branded real-money poker platform in the UK in December 2009 in partnership with Dragonfish.
An agreement was reached with Italian network Microgame in December to bring Caesars’ WSOP brand to online and land-based poker in Italy.
For an interview with CIE chief executive Mitch Garber, see the forthcoming issue of eGaming Review.