The rumors surrounding the possible merging of Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars have been confirmed, and according to the staff at Pokerstars, the merger will happen sometime this spring. The press release by Amaya which is the corporate company that owns both PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com explained the transition process for players, and strategy behind this move.
Here is the original press release:
This platform migration will allow Amaya’s development and technology teams to focus on improving one market-leading platform rather than two, leading to a better gaming experience for all; improvements and features will be delivered faster and more efficiently rather than doubling development requirements. For instance, rather than splitting resources developing Full Tilt Jackpot Sit & Go and PokerStars Spin & Go features independently, teams will be able to work together on delivering the best possible product on one platform.
“Players will benefit from a larger pool of players offering greater game choice, bigger prize pools,” said Rafi Ashkenazi, Chief Executive Officer of Rational Group. “It will also make us more nimble as we can focus our technological innovation on one platform, rather than two, so we will be able to innovate more quickly and enter newly-regulating and existing markets swiftly.”
PokerStars + Full Tilt Merger = Good for Players
As they mentioned in the press release, it makes sense to focus their development and promotional resources in one spot. this will give Pokerstars an even larger player base, bigger tournaments, and best of all the specialty Sit & Go Games, Jackpot Games, Spin-n-Go games will be available all in once place.
The biggest drawback may be the loss of the actual Full Tilt Poker Software which has always been popular among players due to the rich features and ease of customization. But there is no doubt that the current Pokerstars software is top notch.
Why Shut Down Full Tilt Poker?
The full press release did reveal that since the re-launch of the Full Tilt Platform, the numbers have not come close to reaching their goals and players have been hesitant to invest their time and money back at Full Tilt. Before the shut down of Full Tilt in 2012, the room was #2 in terms of daily traffic and large payouts, second only to Pokerstars. Since the re-launch Full Tilt has not breached the Top 10 in terms of traffic.
What Does This Means For Players?
If you have a Full Tilt Poker account that is active, and you have an existing Pokerstars account (if not signup for one free), then you can merge your player accounts together anytime between now and the final close date sometime this spring. It’s a simple process which takes just a few minutes to complete. PokerStars has setup a dedicated page to walk you through the process of pairing your accounts. Account Pairing Guide
What About Full Tilt Points and Rewards?
Pokerstars has not yet announced how Full Tilt Player Points, Edge rewards, and other comp promotions will be compensated, but we have been told there will be some type of reward points exchange.
The Bottom Line? Savings!
This should be a good thing for players overall. Merging all the resources towards one poker room is going to increase everything from player support, to player rewards, new feature development, and best of all an expanded player pool. Of course players probably won’t notice many of these changes right away, but the addition of the Full Tilt Specialty Games such as Rush Poker and the Progressive Jackpot/Knockout games will be a nice addition to the specialty games PokerStars already offers.
This also saves the company a lot of money they can now use to continue to lobby various US States to pass online poker friendly regulations like we see in New Jersey.