Ultimate Poker will offer the first fully legal real-money games within the US later today, when it launches in Nevada at 9am local time.
UltimatePoker.com will offer players aged over 21 and located within Nevada state borders a range of limit and no-limit Texas hold’em ring games at stakes from US$0.01/US$0.02 to US$10/US$20.
In addition to depositing online, players will be also be able to reload and withdraw from their accounts at 16 locations in Nevada owned by Station Casinos, whose owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta hold a majority 57% stake in Ultimate Poker.
Ultimate Poker, not to be confused with the UltimateBet room tainted by a cheating scandal orchestrated by ex-world champion Russ Hamilton and eventually forced out of business by the Black Friday indictments, has been branded to benefit from cross-marketing between the Fertitta brothers’ other main business interest, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The poker room recently signed up last year’s “Big One For One Drop” winner Antonio Esfandiari (pictured above) as brand ambassador.
Ultimate Poker chairman and ex-Golden Nugget owner Tom Breitling, recently installed as a 14% shareholder in the poker room’s parent company Fertitta Interactive, highlighted that Ultimate Poker had achieved the notable accolade of being the first poker operator in the US to offer real-money games in an onshore regulated environment. “This is an important day for the gaming industry”, Breitling said.
The launch follows a week after the company’s poker technology, based on the CyberArts platform acquired by Fertitta Interactive in late 2011, was cleared by Nevada regulators. The Nevada Gaming Control Board is treating the launch as a “field trial”, and will file a report on the first 30 days of activity.
CEO Tobin Prior emphasised that while being the first to go live was “an honour”, this came with a “big responsibility”, heightened by the company being firmly in the media spotlight during the coming weeks.
This will not however be the first time the CyberArts platform bought and adapted by Fertitta has powered the first legal poker room in a regulated market. GiocoDigitale.it operated on CyberArts software until it was eventually migrated onto Ongame following its 2009 acquisition by bwin.
Article written by Katy Stirland
