Could Branded PokerStars Tournaments at Resorts Boost NJ iPoker?

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Friday, September 16th, 2016 | Written by Adam Brown

PokerStars continues to be a driving force in the global poker industry, and this month the brand announced yet another major shake-up in its product. This time, however, it had nothing to do with radical new changes to its website, but instead to its numerous sponsored tournament series. Consequently, the European Poker Tour, as well as smaller events that have been held throughout the year under various names, are all being re-branded into one of two series: the PokerStars Championship for the pros, and the PokerStars Festival geared towards more recreational players.

In the press release that broke the story, PokerStars revealed that the very first PokerStars Festival will be held at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in late October and early November of 2016. The news has brought great excitement to recreational players around the world, and left industry experts speculating as to what type of impact this might have on the gambling industry in New Jersey.

PokerStars A Player in New Jersey

After an absence of almost five years, PokerStars made a well-publicized return to the USA’s online poker market in March 2016. The world’s biggest poker room was forced to leave the lucrative market in 2011 by the US authorities who accused it of contravening the country’s UIGEA, but after paying millions of dollars in fines, it was eventually allowed back into the Garden State’s regulated iGaming market.

Each online operator must be partnered with an Atlantic City land-based casino, which in the case of PokerStars is the Resorts Casino Hotel, which on May 26, 1978 also had the distinction of being the first legal casino to be allowed in the United States outside of the state of Nevada. The venue offers numerous table games, as well as 2,500 slot machines and following announcement of its PokerStars deal, Resorts Resorts CEO Mark Giannantonio commented:

“The market for poker has been anemic. But with an [industry] leader entering the New Jersey market, it’s going to be great for, certainly, Resorts but also great for New Jersey, and hopefully it delivers some momentum for expansion throughout the country.”

Despite initially having providing an impressive 30% boost to the state’s iPoker traffic, however, the PokerStars NJ brand has since seen its initial impact wane, and currently it is showing an average of 90 cash game players over a 7-day period, compared to WSOP/888 (NJ) with 130 players, and Party Borgata (NJ) with just 65.

Effects on New Jersey Online Poker

Needless to say, with such low traffic New Jersey’s online poker sites have struggled to maintain an adequate level of liquidity to satisfy the needs of its players, which has made the industry sluggish. Could the PokerStars Festival boost online poker revenues in the Garden State? The answer is perhaps.

Up until now, New Jersey casinos have tried to use their brick-and-mortar tournaments to increase web traffic with only small success. Borgata saw a slight uptick in liquidity after each of its live tournaments, but the players dropped off again shortly after the events were over.

Some industry experts are predicting that the PokerStars Festival might have different results, though. The Borgata tournaments featured a more classic style of tournament with professionals mainly competing at the tables, and any new sign-ups that they subsequently received were likely from spectators who may have felt inspired by the live tournament action and wanted to give online poker a try. In all likelihood, though, they weren’t really serious players, and any boost to traffic was inevitably short-lived.

The PokerStars Festival, however, is of a completely different design with its activities reaching far beyond just poker, and meant to appeal to recreational players who want a fun vacation with some poker on the side. These individuals may not already be signed up to play online poker, so it’s possible that PokerStars NJ will manage to get some new sign-ups from players who have a real interest in playing, and be prepared to return to New Jersey in order to indulge their passion. If the PokerStars Festival can manage to attract this demographic, it could prove a real boon for PokerStars NJ, especially as the brand’s presence continues to grow the country.

Effects on New Jersey’s Casinos

Another question is how the PokerStars Festival will help the beleaguered casino industry in New Jersey. Resorts Casino has not had a poker room since 2010, so there is a good chance that many younger players who step through the doors will never have been there before. If the resort can manage to wow, there could be the potential for repeat business in the future. With the casino now eagerly trying to capture some of the now displaced players who frequented the Trump Taj Mahal, the timing couldn’t be better for Resorts to host the first-ever PokerStars Festival.