bet365 has jumped the gun by becoming the first operator to go live with Playtech’s new fast-fold poker product.
Playtech announced earlier this week that Speed Hold’em tables, allowing players to quick-fold pre-flop and jump to the next hand, would go live in early July on its iPoker network.
Bet365 however issued a statement yesterday confirming it has already gone live with the new format under the name of Sprint Poker, now available in the lobby alongside regular tables in limit and pot limit variations.
Steve Ibberson, MD of Gaming at bet365, said the company was excited by the new launch, calling it “more intense than normal poker”.
Other leading operators on iPoker, such as William Hill and Paddy Power, are also expected to go live with the new format shortly, launched to fill the vacuum left by the closure of Rush Poker owner Full Tilt last June.
Rival poker network owner Microgaming, that powers the rooms of Ladbrokes and 32Red, launched fast-fold variant Blaze Poker late last month.
The world’s leading standalone poker room, PokerStars, went live with its fast-paced poker offering, Zoom Poker, in March of this year. Leading Scandinavian brands Unibet and Betsson-owned Betsafe have also launched fast-fold variants on Relax Gaming’s Fast Poker network.
Playtech’s open dot.com iPoker platform is the leading poker network for cash game traffic, according to tracking site Pokerscout. It also runs regional dot.country networks in Italy (where it is the second largest cash games network with around 14% market share according to regulator AAMS’ figures), France and, as of 5 June, Spain.
