Poker News

It was announced yesterday that the popular European online gaming organization ChiliGaming will enter the United States market at the start of 2011, introducing its ChiliPoker brand to American customers.

The ChiliGaming Network, comprised of its popular online poker, casino, and bookmaking operations, has been in existence since 2006. Since that time, it has been able to expand around the globe, but, as of yet, has been unable to touch the United States because of the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006. The new plan in place by ChiliGaming will allow the company to enter into the American market legally and preserve its ability to be a part of the landscape if the UIGEA is repealed or amended.

ChiliGaming will launch a subscription-based service to bring online poker to USA players. The subscription-based model allows players, for a nominal monthly charge, to play online poker legally in the United States, as no actual money is transferred on the tables. The new ChiliGaming American option will not be a part of the ChiliGaming Network empire per se, but will complement the global offerings of the company.

“We are very excited about this new dimension to our business,” Alexandre Dreyfus, the Chief Executive Officer of ChiliPoker, stated during the announcement. “Our economies of scale will help this be a strong mechanism for further growth and it will help fill the void that exists in markets where online gaming is restricted and consumers want to play poker. In markets where we operate online gaming, this new product will provide consumers with more choice.”

The subscription-based model has been attempted on several occasions in the United States with varying degrees of success. One of the most popular examples of success is the World Poker Tour’s ClubWPT, which was created in 2008. According to numbers quoted in London Stock Exchange documents after PartyGaming bought WPT Enterprises in 2009, ClubWPT has more than 16,000 subscriptions across 37 U.S. states.

With the success stories, however, there are also those that have failed due to economic conditions or a lack of players. In September, the CardPlayer subscription room SpadeClub was shuttered due to the fact that, in the words of Jeff Shulman in a Poker News Daily article, “We just couldn’t make it work from a financial standpoint.” From the end of 2008 through the early part of 2009, other subscription-based services such as Fleet Street Poker, Duplicate Poker, and Zosoz also failed to garner enough players to be profitable.

One person pleased with the move by ChiliGaming is the site’s sponsored poker pro Liz Lieu. The popular female pro, who has worn the ChiliPoker patch in tournaments abroad and in the United States, was giddy with the new changes over her Twitter account on Thursday. In response to a question as to whether Lieu would continue to be the face of ChiliPoker once it hits the U.S. market, “The Poker Diva” responded, “Atm, the answer’s yes.”

The move by ChiliGaming is just the latest in what has been a very successful year for the company. Last year, ChiliPoker teamed with the WPT to sponsor the first ever tournament in North Africa in Marrakech, Morocco and will return as the event’s co-sponsor this year. ChiliPoker was also one of the first licensees when the French government opened up online poker to international companies in June 2010.

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