Yahoo! Launches Online Poker Room

In what some are speculating will be an event that will cause a seismic shift in the internet poker world, internet behemoth Yahoo! has opened a real money online poker room.  Yahoo! is the first company not specifically involved in gambling to step foot in the ring. 

What also makes this surprising is that Yahoo! is an American company.  Don’t let that confuse you into thinking that the poker room allows U.S. residents to play, because it does not.  The games are actually operated by European company St. Minver Ltd., which is licensed in Gibraltar.  The Yahoo! poker room runs on the Boss Media software platform and is part of Boss Media’s International Poker Network (IPN).   

The choice of IPN is interesting, in that it is quite a small network, ranked only twelfth in traffic industry according to PokerSiteScout.com.  IPN caters primarily to Europeans and has no major rooms in its stable.  The addition of Yahoo! plus the pending addition of Paradise Poker may change things, though.  It will not take a high percentage of Yahoo! Games regulars to give IPN a nice boost. 

The eyes of the industry (and many outside of it) will no doubt be on Yahoo! to see how its foray into the online poker world takes shape.

Originally published 12:22 AM Friday, April 27, 2007