With France and Spain now fully committed to shared player pools, and PokerStars leading the operator charge into this new dispensation, The Stars Group’s director of poker operations, Severin Rasset explained the objectives and issues the company faces – chiefly as regards Southern European pricing.
The detailed rationale behind the pricing structure is explained in detail by Rasset here:
https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/inside-pokerstars/2018/france-spain-new-pricing-new-possibilities-170131.shtml.
In summary, the PokerStars executive outlines the pricing structure thus:
• Ring games: We’ve taken a 5.75% midpoint between the pre-existing French and Spanish structures, moving from 6.5% for France and 5.25% for Spain and creating new caps for both.
• Zoom cash games: A structure much closer to Spain with 5.25% and revised caps. Full structure available on this page (PokerStars.fr , PokerStars.es) for cash game and ZOOM
• Spin & Go: Besides the 8% rake at 0.25€, all Spin & Go’s will be raked at 7%, which represents a decrease for Spain, and is stable for France. Spin & Go pools will stay separate for a few days for technical reasons.
• Multi-table tournaments: Both countries will see an increase from about 9.5% to 10%.
• SNG: There will be an increase for Spain but fees will remain similar to before in France, especially for the hyper tournaments. A €3 buy-in SNG will have 5% rake for example, the lowest that we can reasonably offer due to the gaming duty.
Rasset says the situation will be closely monitored in this new field in which two markets are merging.
He also advises poker fans:
“I would like to take advantage of this note to mention that players from outside Spain will be able to join the French and Spanish liquidity through PokerStars.es.
“We think it is important to boost the liquidity at the start. As we did for France, this situation will be reviewed periodically and might be reversed if the benefits of liquidity are overweighed by the burden that it creates on recreational players.”
He concludes by opining that the combination of French and Spanish player pools will make it easier to “…quickly find a game, produce bigger tournament prize pools, and potentially award life-changing money more often.”