A new online poker site will enter the Pennsylvania market next week.
The World Series of Poker tweeted yesterday afternoon that WSOP.com will launch its Keystone State product on July 12. The company also announced that upgrades to the software would be implemented when its Pennsylvania rollout takes place.
The addition of WSOP.com to the Pennsylvania market adds competition to an intrastate player pool that lacked choices for quite some time. PokerStars PA launched in November 2019 and it was the only operator in the state until last April, when BetMGM and Borgata Poker entered the market.
HUGE NEWS: https://t.co/k6cF9BfdmO is coming soon to PA The #1 poker site in the nation will be launching on July 12. Expect the best sign up offer, the largest guarantees, and new a new and improved https://t.co/k6cF9BfdmO poker client. pic.twitter.com/tlky8SsyZB
— WSOP (@WSOP) July 5, 2021
Around the same time as MGM’s entry, WSOP.com left some not-so-subtle hints that it would be making the same move. The company added tabs for the Pennsylvania client on its website without any explanation for it.
Players using the client for New Jersey and Nevada are currently about to log into the software and play bracelet events for the 2021 WSOP Online Series. Pennsylvania players will not have that same luxury for this year. Online WSOP events will only be available for those two states for the duration of the series.
WSOP.com is operational in Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey. Those three jurisdictions have agreed to share player pools, which have created larger prize pools through more liquidity. It’s the only operational interstate player pool in the country.
Regulators in Pennsylvania have not agreed to do the same yet, so players on WSOP.com in Pennsylvania will only be able to compete against other players within the state’s borders. Anyone who already has an account in another state must create a new one if they travel to Pennsylvania and want to play in that market.
Poker Atlas’ information coordinator Kevin Mathers responded to a question to the tweet, saying that he expects the Pennsylvania market to merge with the New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware player pool by the end of the year.
He also said that it could be joined by Michigan, which launched its online poker market at the start of the year. WSOP.com does not have a client up and running in the Wolverine State, however, and there is nothing that points to it having one set up in the immediate future.