Yahoo launches poker site

Could the tech giants become the next big thing in online poker?

Search engine Yahoo are the latest big name to throw their hat into the ring to offer online poker. They have launched a new Texas Hold’em portal on their website this month. 

It is currently being advertised on their Fantasy Football Website, to capitalise on the crossover of interests between the two games.

As yet it is just a play money only platform, with no prizes to be won. However, Yahoo are no stranger to offering real money gaming, and offer 'pay to win' games in both Fantasy Football and Fantasy Basketball right now. 

Ready to enter a legal US market?

Experts are predicting that as and when online poker becomes legalised, state-by-state, in the US, Yahoo will be primed to enter the real money online poker market. 

Yahoo have already built a popular real money Fantasy Football product. Real money Fantasy Football is currently experiencing a boom in the United States and many former professional poker players are turning to it. 

Currently the Yahoo Poker product is quite a simple browser based client offering free-to-play games. Members can log-in using their Yahoo email account, which suggests there is a vast amount of potential players in their database already.

Were Yahoo to enter the real money poker market, it would likely cause huge waves in the industry. We have for a long time waited for Facebook to offer real money poker after teasing it for several years. Could Yahoo be the first major tech company to take on the casino based poker rooms? And more importantly for those of us this side of the pond, will we see them launch real money games in Europe?