Nevada is the undisputed hub for in-person poker in the United States, but the number of online poker options have been limited. Only two online poker providers have gained any level of traction since poker was legalized online in 2013. But now BetMGM seems poised to join the game in Nevada, with an estimated launch coming in the next calendar year.
Though Ultimate Poker was once an active operator in Nevada, it lost business years ago, leaving only WSOP.com as the monopoly holder of online poker in the state. BetMGM Poker NV and one other company, Z4Poker, have had licenses to operate poker online in Nevada, but neither had followed through. Those licenses were recently renewed.
By all accounts, Z4Poker is not particularly close to launching in Nevada. BetMGM, however, has more infrastructure in place to launch poker soon.
MGM is reportedly field testing some things with regard to both sports betting and online poker. If testing goes well, BetMGM could launch online poker in Nevada within a year, with liquidity sharing between operations in Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
An interesting tidbit about that four-state liquidity sharing proposal from BetMGM is the fact that currently only two online poker operators have their product available in multiple states: WSOP.com and PokerStars. BetMGM would be the only state to operate in more than two.
Yesterday’s we discussed results of a Truist survey, and a major note from the survey was how respondents felt about their iGaming product. A significant 62% said they like their online casino games and sportsbooks to be on the same platform. Since BetMGM is such a leader in the sports betting space, it makes sense that they would want to also expand their reach to online poker.
