Yahoo Getting Desparate: Launches Online Poker Rooms
With Google thoroughly dominating Yahoo in the search engine wars, thereby translating to a thorough butt-kicking in the bottom line wars, Yahoo UK has taken steps to launch a Real Money Online Poker Room! Yahoo has partnered up with St. Minver Ltd and the International Poker Network to get this room started over in Europe as Online Gaming in the United States has hit a slight bump in the road due to recent law changes.
Yahoo Games has always been one of the popular places to find casual play money games of poker. AOL also has a similar play money arena for it’s members, but the only problem is that with play money, the quality of play has always been low. It will be very interesting to see the influx of new players switching to Real Money Poker as Yahoo opens the doors. If I was a savvy poker player right now, I’d be chomping at the bit for the chance to play against all these new money whales!
Many in the industry have openly wondered what kind of an effect Google, MSN and Yahoo would have if they ever decided to stake their claim in the world of Online Gambling. Will they cannibalize all the Poker Players and squash all the small to medium poker rooms? How will it effect the lucrative world of Poker Affiliate Marketing since these Online Giants don’t need the help? It looks like this is one revenue source Yahoo wanted to get in on before Google and with the billions of dollars in play, I really don’t think Google and MSN can sit this one out!
So, how much do you play and do you think Yahoo has made the right move in opening the doors to Real Money Online Poker?
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brilliant! lol
no but seriously this is a genius move on their part in terms of claiming stake on this revenue. online gaming is outlawed in the US (for now), but not in the rest of the entire free world.
Personally, I think Yahoo has to focus more on content, of which is has a head-and-shoulders advantage above Google. But Yahoo Developers still need to integrate more of the company’s properties and throw up some more API.