Vegas Inc – Caesars Entertainment’s online poker website, using the World Series of Poker brand, will launch Thursday morning, company officials said today.
Caesars Interactive will capitalize on the brand with online tournaments feeding into the company’s annual competition at the Rio that runs from late May to mid-July.
The site, WSOP.com, will launch with a variety of poker games, including stud and Omaha hi-lo as well as Texas hold ‘em. And unlike its lone competitor — Station Casinos’ Ultimate Poker — it will offer Mac-friendly computer compatibility.
Only residents or visitors to Nevada will be eligible to play, but Caesars is supporting efforts to enable “shared liquidity” that would involve compacts to allow players from others states to play in Nevada’s games.
The site will launch at 9:19 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
Company officials said there was nothing significant about the 9/19 launch at 9:19 a.m., other than it makes it easier for people to remember the time and date of the start-up.
The start-up marks the beginning of the state Gaming Control Board’s field trial of the WSOP.com site, during which the public can play and regulators oversee all aspects of the game. Final approval of the site is expected by the end of the year.
Caesars is banking on its World Series of Poker brand to attract players. Company officials said 12,000 people — many of them from out of state and who could only play when visiting Nevada — already have signed up.
Caesars Interactive, the corporation’s online poker subsidiary, is partnering with 888 Holdings Plc., a Gibraltar-based company with online poker sites operating in the United Kingdom for 16 years, to produce the site.
