Nevada gaming commissioners will on Thursday, May 23 deliver their opinions and ruling on a number of matters relating to the state’s gaming industry. One of the issues at hand include a recent application by GVC Holdings for an online sports betting and online gaming license in the state.
The renowned gambling powerhouse which acquired bwin.party Digital Entertainment in 2016 and Ladbrokes Coral in 2018 now has its sights set on the United States’ gaming market and has chosen Nevada to be part of its expansion plans. It is, however, not the first time that the company will be venturing into the US market – last year, it formed a 50/50 joint venture with MGM Resorts International which involved the creation of an online gaming and sports betting platform in the United States. This joint venture has been making moves with one of the most recent plans being to bring their Roar Digital JV platform to Nevada.
In addition to the sports betting license that they hope to acquire in Nevada, the two companies are hopeful that the state gaming regulators will award them an online gaming license – it is worth noting that in Nevada, online gaming basically refers to online poker. Currently, the online poker industry in the state is a monopoly of the online operation of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). As such, the entry of a new player in the online poker market is definitely bound to shake things up quite a bit.
Is PartyPoker Coming to Nevada?
Interestingly, the online gaming portion of GVC’s Holdings application hints at the fact that the global gambling giant could be gearing up to finally introduce its highly-acclaimed PartyPoker brand to Nevada’s regulated online poker market. This would be a great comeback for PartyPoker which was forced to leave the US market back in 2006 when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act came into effect.
While PartyPoker brand was able to return to the US market to a limited extent through a partnership with MGM’s Borgata casino resort in Atlantic City, it has not managed to get a substantial competitive edge over other online poker operators, especially PokerStars, which is its greatest competitor.
As mentioned earlier, WSOP has already cemented itself in the Nevada regulated market which means that PartyPoker will also have to deal with immense levels of competition on that front while at the same time carving out a name for itself in the country’s gaming market. Still, things are looking up for the company.
