The world’s largest online poker room, PokerStars, has finally made its official launch into the realm of social gaming. The new play-money poker app, PokerStars Play, has been in the works for a very long time now, including an extensive 18-month beta testing phase. With the official release of the new social gaming app, players all over the world can now enjoy a friendly poker game with their Facebook friends that is very much akin to the software systems found on PokerStars.net.
OnlinePokerRealMoney.co.uk tries to dispel some legal confusions stemming from passage of George Bush's UIGEA of 2006 . Federal status seems to depend on interpretation of the wire act and other laws which were crafted many years ago and which remained high level in nature. The United Kingdom has much clearer laws including their own real money gambling commission .
The natural assumption might be that PokerStars Play is just another social poker app among the overflowing sea of relative gaming opportunities already available on Facebook, but that’s simply not the case. PokerStars Play offers the same vast range of online poker games that its play-money poker site, PokerStars.net, already presents, as well as an abundance of other features that have proven popular with the iGaming operator’s clientele. Facebook users can even play the brand’s famous fast-fold poker games, known as Zoom Poker, in the new poker app.
The resemblance to PokerStars.net is uncanny at a glance, but in reality, PokerStars Play actually offers some new features that the .NET domain lacks. One thing social gaming apps have become renowned for is their distribution of achievement awards for accomplishing various tasks and missions, raising the level of competition between Facebook friends. PokerStars Play takes that into account, challenging their players to complete different goals and reach specific levels to attain the relative accolades.
David Baazov, CEO of Amaya Gaming – the company that recently acquired PokerStars parent company, Rational Group – said that he is well aware of the importance of social gaming in today’s modern world of advanced technologies. Although PokerStars Play is accessible to all with no financial obligation or real money online wagering, social games such as this one do offer in-app purchases that have the potential to generate millions of dollars in revenue.
“We anticipate social gaming will be an important growth opportunity for the company,” said Baazov. “While this social poker offering is not real money gaming, Rational has begun to modify this offering through the sale of chips to players with important upgrades.”
Though fully functional, PokerStars Play is not a finished product by any means according to a spokesperson for the company. The social poker app will continuously undergo additional feature enhancements and upgrades to help improve the product. Leaderboards and added achievements are among the top priorities for developers of the platform, and extra in-app purchases are sure to follow.
The number one competitor in the realm of social poker applications is currently Zynga. PokerStars Play will have some stiff competition from that brand over the coming months, and perhaps not just in the social gaming empire. Last year Zynga, finally burst onto the real money online poker scene after partnering with PartyPoker in the UK. Then in January of this year, Zynga broke the mold by offering a real money version of its Facebook-based social poker app to UK residents. Whether PokerStars has any intention of blazing a similar trail is currently unknown, but it would certainly be something to expect from the world’s largest online poker company in the foreseeable future.