PokerStars Opening Live Poker Room In UK

The world’s top online poker site is expanding its reach to the realm of live poker, agreeing to a deal with UK’s Hippodrome Casino to open a poker room.

The Hippodrome, UK’s largest casino located in the West End of London, re-opened as a casino just three months ago following an extensive £40 million refurbishing project. The current poker room, which some posters on public online poker forums have complained is too small, will now undergo its own upgrade and refurbishing and will carry the PokerStars brand.

The grand opening is expected for early 2013 and PokerStars will be hosting a variety of tournaments and special events in its new live poker room. The room’s events will be promoted at the online poker site, a leader in the industry by a huge margin.

The Hippodrome has dramatically raised the quality bar for the UK casino industry, Guy Templer, PokerStars’ Group Strategy Director told pokerfuse. So together we will give poker players the same great poker experience, live 24/7 in the heart of London that they get from PokerStars online. We are looking forward to unveiling some great new live events for the UK poker market in 2013.

The Hippodrome has also teamed up with the Microgaming Network in a deal that calls for Microgaming to provide software for online games run inside the casino. Its a triumverate agreement that will find Microgaming running online casino games and PokerStars operating online poker under the brand of Hippodrome.

Microgaming is proud to have been selected as the exclusive provider of online gaming software to the iconic London brand The Hippodrome, Microgaming CEO Roger Raatgever said. The convergence of offline and online gaming is a trend that Microgaming has been at the forefront of for some time now and we are delighted to be able to provide a bespoke online casino to The Hippodrome, giving their players a first class cross-platform gaming experience.

The Hippodrome has an extensive history, opening in 1900 as a venue for circuses. It was also a theater for over four decades and then transformed into primarily a nightclub for another nearly five decades. The name Hippodrome comes from the fact that animal acts were a major part of the entertainment provided at the locale.