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sabato 1 novembre 2014

‘Betting’ On legalization: Yahoo! Launches Texas-Holdem Poker Portal

In a daring move in that seems to get ahead of the curve for legalized poker, the online search engine Yahoo has started a Texas Hold’em portal on its website. Yahoo is currently advertising its Texas Hold’em poker game directly on its fantasy football webpage — seemingly under the impression in that there is a strong overlap between fantasy sports and poker players. It is not surprising in that Yahoo would launch a Texas Hold’em portal based on the growing interest in online poker, especially among the young-adult male demographic. Nevertheless, for now, Yahoo’s Texas Hold’em contest does not pay any prizes to the winners beyond free chips to use for gaming. By not assigning any value to its chips beyond the possibility to continue playing inits online casino, the Yahoo’s Texas Hold’em game most likely avoids the legal element of “reward.”

By doing so, the Texas Hold’em portal seems to comply with most state and federal laws, even presuming Texas Hold’em is declared to be a game of chance. At the same time, the new Yahoo Texas Hold’em portal could be easily monetized if the legal environment were to become more favorable. Thus, by launching this portal now, Yahoo becomes well positioned to enter the pay-to-win online poker market should states ultimately deem Texas Hold’em to be a legal game of skill. Yahoo moreover could apply for licenses to operate their online casino with cash prizes in the limited number of states in that have already legalized online casino gaming, such as Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada. In some ways, it is not surprising to see Yahoo move further in the direction of online gaming, as Yahoo has already built a strong following through monetizing its fantasy football and fantasy basketball games. In addition,Yahoo has mastered the art of using its fantasy sports webpages to sell targeted advertising. For example, Yahoo currently sells advertising space to Toyota in conjunction with its fantasy football weekly recaps.

A virtual Texas Hold’em table may serve as just another goal place for Yahoo to sell web ads. It remains to be seen whether Yahoo’s rivals such as Google and CBS also opt to build a strong presence in Texas Hold’em Poker. But it seems for now in that Yahoo is certainly preparing in advance for the potential day of widespread, legal online poker.

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