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PokerStars has announced last Friday that they will be adding casino games and a sportsbook to their site. Blackjack and roulette will be available in the client shortly, while sportsbetting and other casino games will come in 2015.
PokerStars has introduced blackjack and roulette to it's spanish .ES client at the end of September, and it was expected that they are going to introduce casino games on their .COM/.EU client aswell.
The company gave an official press release on November 21.
In the press release they state that blackjack and roulette are going to be introduced to all of their markets by the end of 2014, while sportsbetting and other casino games will be added in 2015.
The company also plans on launching a fully functional casino which will be available on the web as well as on mobile platforms.
According to the research conducted at Full Tilt (which has added casino games to its client earlier this year) and PokerStars.ES shows that around 30% of poker players play casino games every month and that 50% of Full Tilt casino users have stated that FT is the only site that they play casino games on.
According to Eric Hollreiser, Head of Corporate Communications for PokerStars, plenty of players who have left Full Tilt have returned because of the casino games, and it was a success amongst active players aswell. Players deposited more, but this didn't have a big effect on poker, players didn't take their poker bankrolls to the casino tables.
Hollreiser also stated that players will have the chance to hide the casino games from the client and can also opt-out of casino/sportsbetting marketing emails, and that he believes that casino games will bring a lot of value to PokerStars which will have a positive effect on poker aswell.
The new blackjack and roulette games are made with poker players in mind, there will be unique multiplayer modes, players will be able to chat and bet at the table aswell. Micro limits will start from $0,10, which is one of the smallest stakes game on the market.
PokerStars has also provided two photos about the new casino games:
Blackjack:
Roulette:
