This is going to be a trend we’ll be seeing more of, I wager, especially as the big US casino groups start to flex their muscles if and when the US legalises online gambling.
Back over on the UK side of The pond, the new(ish) The Hippodrome Casino in London’s Leicester Square is gearing up for its online business with the appointment of George Constantinou as director of online operations (following a successful partnership deal with Poker Stars)
Constantinou will spearhead the launch of the new online casino hippodromecasino.com, ( which will be a Microgaming Casino), that will be closely followed by a Poker Stars branded poker floor at the top of the casino. He will also be rolling out the Hippodrome’s affiliate site and investigating other partnerships and media relationships.
Constantinou used to work at Pokerroom.com, which went on to become the planet’s third largest poker site, where he headed up UK marketing and media affiliate deals. He was also Biz Dev director with skill gaming firm Serious Trivia, where he built partnerships with Fox, Football League, Bauer and MTV.
PokerStars, which is still the worlds’ largest online poker site, will tart up and rebrand the poker deck at the Hippodrome and build the UK’s 1st PokerStars’ poker room. The room will host PokerStars’ sponsored tournaments and special events which the site will promote to its customer base of 50 million players. PokerStars has taken a minority stakeholding in the Hippodrome Casino as part of the deal.
Microgaming will build the Online Hippodrome Casino which will be run by Betway Group. Can’t wait to test the new casino out!