It’s been a busy period of late for GGPoker, the flagship poker room of the GGNetwork, with numerous announcements designed to provide a further boost amid the current wave being felt.

As land-based entities suffer due to a variety of mandated lockdowns worldwide, a race to online, or to diversify those in existence, has been evident across much of the online gaming space.

With many having spoken of a boost for poker given the current climate, Jean-Christophe Antoine, head of GGPoker Network, details how they have found the COVID-19 pandemic to have impacted upon operations: “Indeed, it has boosted almost every online poker business to a point that some people even compare it to the 2003’s Moneymaker effect (known to be the spark that ignited the online poker craze back then) when Chris Moneymaker, an American accountant won the WSOP Main Event for $2.5m by qualifying online for less than $100.

“I do not think it will be that big and last that long though (even if I would love to) since a lot of poker markets are now ring-fenced like the USA (only allowing online poker in 5 states) or the trio France/Spain/Portugal.”

Before moving on to detail a potential, or many would say inevitable, drop-off when sports do resume, and what action is to taken to mitigate such an outcome, particularly in the face of a significantly strong calendar of events in 2021: “Yes, definitely but not so much because of sports starting again actually even if it will have some effect of course. It will have more to do with the end of lockdowns around the world combined with summertime in my opinion. 

It gives them thrills, sweats and fun”

“We know June and July are usually the worst months for online poker as people go on holidays and go out way more so it is probably going to be even worse this year. For the future, I can say that we just recently launched more casino games on our website so who knows what 2021 has in store for us, we might have sports betting by then!

“In any case, apart from continuing on our path to make poker entertaining with new developments that you can check on our public roadmap, I can tell you that we will have more online versions of some poker live events that won’t be able to be played in brick and mortar casinos due to the pandemic. And we will continue spending over $1,000,000 in promotions every month as we’ve been doing for years now.”

Speaking in the midst of the crest of wave being ridden, one simple question provides a logical continuation – what does poker offer the modern bettor?

“It gives them thrills, sweats and fun (at least that’s what we are all about at GGPoker so I hope it does!) Many features are designed with this mindset, optimising what players experience in order to provide them with a good time, whatever their results are,” Antoine says.

“There are also so many different variants and variations that you could play for hours and still have not tried all the different games, features and strategies.”

Among the many link-ups inked recently by GGPoker, two recent example saw partnerships entered with six-time tennis major winner and former world number one Boris Becker as an official site ambassador, as well as rolling out an agreement with Czech Republic’s King’s Casino,” Antoine continued.

We are preparing great things”

“Boris Becker is a tennis legend worldwide and having him play the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series with us definitely helps in raising awareness about online poker outside of its usual boundaries. He likes to have fun and wants to win (at least) 1 of the 18 rings so I hope that it also encourages players to download our poker client and play against him. It’s not every day you have a chance to have Boris Becker at your table and try to bust him!

“King’s Casino has players from all over the world and it made great sense they launched their online operations with us while the casino was closed. Longer-term, it’s even better because their players can now enjoy the best poker experience whenever they want. We are preparing great things with them. Stay tuned!

Before concluding with comments of further benefits of yet another agreement entered, this time alongside Olympic Entertainment Group: “The immediate benefit is the consolidation of our presence in the Baltics while the long term one would potentially be supporting them entering new markets. But first and foremost, it’s a partnership between 2 strong companies that have poker at heart which will hopefully yield great projects.

“They also organise very successful live poker tournaments like Battle of Malta or Kings of Tallinn and I’m sure we will be able to help them grow these events even more than before!”