Full Tilt Poker Now Rebranded As Just Full Tilt

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Thursday, July 17th, 2014 | Written by Shane Larson

Full Tilt Poker’s storied past has just taken another twist after it was announced the brand has now dropped the word “Poker” from its title. The rebranding, which was finalized last week, also included a URL change and is seen as a first step towards being recognized as a site that offers a broad range of online casino games, as well as poker. Talking to eGaming Review Magazine (eGR), a Full Tilt representative, explained:

“This year our gaming portfolio on Full Tilt expanded to offer a range of single and multi-player variations of casino games. Therefore, we have now moved the domain from FullTiltPoker.com and FullTiltPoker.eu to FullTilt.com and FullTilt.eu.”

The Rational Group expands beyond poker

Up until now The Rational Group, owners of both PokerStars and Full Tilt, has concentrated on offering just online poker, although Full Tilt had indicated as far back as July 2013 that it was planning to expand into casino games. At the beginning of this year, Full Tilt subsequently added blackjack and roulette to its product list, with Eric Hollreiser, Head of Corporate Communications for The Rational Group, explaining at the time:

“As we announced last summer, the Rational Group is expanding our offering to include casino style games on Full Tilt Poker. This week we began testing single and multiplayer play-money versions of Blackjack and Roulette in select markets. Following the test period we will provide real money offerings in current and additional test markets. As always, we will provide the high quality player experience, integrity, security, safety and support that players have come to expect from Rational Group brands.”

Full Tilt losing ground

Prior to Black-Friday, Full Tilt Poker was PokerStars’ main competitor, but after it failed to segregate its players’ deposits and subsequently ran into financial troubles, the site was later sold by the US Department of Justice to the Rational Group. Since then, Full Tilt Poker has failed to regain the level of trust and traffic it enjoyed before the US online poker crackdown, and last week slipped to sixth place in the worldwide ranking of cash game player traffic.

According to PokerScout, an average of 1,450 cash game players can be found at Full Tilt Poker over a seven-day period, behind PokerStars (18,500), 888poker (2,000), iPoker (1,900), PartyPoker (1,800), and PokerStars.it (1,450).

Online casinos make money

Therefore, Full Tilt’s branch out into casino gaming represents a good business decision for the site, as it continues to lose ground to other igaming operators, such as 888 and Party, who already have internal casino platforms.

The need for poker rooms to embrace online casino gambling has become even more pressing recently, after the US decided to regulate its igaming industry. Thus far, online poker has represented a mere fraction of total internet gambling revenues, and in May just $2.6 million of New Jersey’s $10.47 million came from poker, and in Delaware that figure was $57,470 from total igaming revenues of $175,601.

Thus far, the other regulated state of Nevada has concentrated solely on offering online poker, although the reason is probably due to the fact The Silver State’s casino interests are not concerned about the “cannibalization” of its small poker market, but is prepared to resist any challenges to its brick-and-mortar casino game business. That situation may also change over time, however, and as Sarah Coffey suggested in an article posted on ifrahonigaming.com:

“Some states considering poker-only legislation view it as a test run to see how the well the state can implement online gaming safely and responsibly before adding casino games to the mix. Nevada and Pennsylvania have said that they see online poker as a potential first step into online gaming rather than a final one. We believe that many poker-only states will find themselves adding casino games down the line when they see how much potential revenue they’re leaving on the table.”

The right move for PokerStars

As mentioned, Full Tilt’s move towards casino games is important if the site is to compete against other international operators, such as 888 and PartyPoker, especially as Rational Group is currently in the process of expanding Full Tilt into new markets, including Italy, Spain and Sweden.

In June The Rational Group announced it was to be acquired by Amaya Gaming for $4.9 billion, and the firm is also hoping the change will allow it to regain access to the USA’s igaming markets. Both PokerStars and Full Tilt have been labelled “bad actors” for contravening the country’s UIGEA, but since the acquisition was announced are hopeful of a a rubber-stamped approval to enter New Jersey’s online gambling marketplace.