Spain, France Poker Regulators Could Combine Player Pools

France’s online poker regulation body ARJEL announced this week it will enter into cooperation with Spain’s Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ). The agreement will lead to increased cooperation between the two bodies regarding the sharing of information pertaining to legalizing online gambling. The partnership is another step towards what could become shared online poker player liquidity pools between the two nations.
Online poker in European countries such as France, Spain and Italy is legalized and regulated but players from those countries are kept segregated on networks consisting only of local opponents. These countries along with Portugal have previously discussed the possibility of sharing their online poker player pools. Another discussion on this topic will take place between these countries in December.
In the meantime, shared player pools between France and Spain could be on the fast-track following the latest cooperative agreement between the countries. Currently, the countries have only agreed to share information to help each other operate their online poker networks. Such agreements are not uncommon for helping swap information to manage online poker network issues like network security and going after unlicensed sites.
If the agreement will also lead to players from Spain and France being able to compete against each other in a regulated online poker atmosphere remains to be seen.