Six years after Pennsylvania launched regulated online poker, a year after pokerfuse launched its grassroots movement #GrowPAPoker , the day has finally arrived: Two online poker networks in PA have connected with their US networks.

Some top line facts and a few thoughts 👇 What happened today:

- BetMGM and Borgata today connected with the wider Michigan/NJ online poker network. Six skins now span four states on one network.

- WSOP PA connected with WSOP Online in Nevada, NJ and Michigan. First ever four-state online poker network in the US.

Three years ago, "more rake is better" was poker's biggest meme: lambasting @RealKidPoker for saying that charging more at the online poker tables could be better for players.

The funny thing is that @GGPoker has been quietly executing this concept and proving it to be true.

🧵 GGPoker traditionally has had high rake - especially at cash game tables. In particular, it rakes 3-bet pots preflop. While it has reduced it in spots recently to make it competitive in some scenarios, it is still high in many situations vs PS and others.

pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2…

Interesting article on PRO this week on poker apps. thought this would be a good opportunity to go over some back story on apps.

First, GGPoker launched their own app, ClubGG 👇

pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2… (1/24) So, this is GG's first entry into "home games" features and in that way competes with the offers from PokerStars, partypoker, 888 etc.

But, notably, it follows much more closely the agent model of private clubs. More on that in a bit. (2/24)

If you're not aware of @matt_levine - he is a fantastic resource for financial news. Pithy daily newsletter manages to be that v rare combo: wonkish to pull you in, yet simple enough a layperson can follow along.

His $GME coverage this week has been exemplary. /1 If you want to get a genuinely interesting, balanced take on this story, I would strongly recommend you start at his coverage from the start of the week, and enjoy it all unfolding through his expert eyes. /2

Right, let's put a bit more context behind this tweet from yesterday.

Here's a thread on the history of the Wire Act interpretation over the last decade and its impact on online poker - and where we're going next. /1

https://twitter.com/pokerprojones/status/1351950775551975430

I won't regurgitate the entire decade-long Wire Act story. You can read this on PRO today for more detail; in a couple of hours @SpookyBugs will have a detailed piece up on pokerfuse too.

But very briefly...

pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2… /2

So, this is such a good idea it's kind of hard to believe this hasn't been done before honestly.

- Invite-only KO event
- 48 streamers invited to play
- poker plrs + other games/esports
- Everyone streams
- $50,000 prize pool
- "Raid" viewers on KO

(more thoughts below ⬇️)

https://twitter.com/pokerindpro/status/1327243340383973376

According to the rules

- All 48 streamers stream on Twitch
- Everyone has 3 lives. (I guess like a multi-stack tournament? - wasn't aware partypoker supported this tbqh)
- If you knock someone out for the 3rd and final time, you get their bounty and *also their viewers*

Especially relevant with today's news that GG's relationship with the WSOP extends: These are my main takeaways from Flutter's Q3 financial results this week as it pertains to poker (thread 👇)

pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2… So the headline figures:

- PokerStars division (includes sports + casino) flat YoY
- in constant currency, up 5%
- The "gaming" segment (casino + poker), up 6% cc

However, in that, they reported (only in relative figures, in cc)
🎲 casino +32%
🏅sports +3%
🃏 Poker -10%

Some first notes on Flutter's H1 from a poker perspective.

Phone-in analysts' call is in 15 mins, but the presentation is already live.

staticcontents.investis.com/media/f/flutte… Top line - from what I can tell, Flutter are going to stop reporting revenue numbers from poker, which is very disappointing.

PokerStars (non-US) division is broken down by sports and gaming, the latter of which will include casino.

Up 40% YoY.

So this week, along with the regular content - of which we're still snowed under and have a large backlog, it's been a mad busy time and with PSPC starting at the weekend, it's not going to quieten down any time soon - we have been having some fun looking back at 2018. We've done curations this week on our top 20 exclusive articles and top 20 longer-form features - both are in front of the paywall (but not the articles they link to - psyche!) so feel free to check them out:

- pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2…

- pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2…