BetMGM Poker Connects Michigan and New Jersey Sites
BetMGM has been a quiet but strong force in the US online poker market for years. With online casinos, sports betting, and online poker, BetMGM has delivered a product that is connected to the massive MGM Resorts empire and a refreshing change from standard options like WSOP and PokerStars. Its connection to land-based casinos like the Borgata in New Jersey, Hollywood Casino in Pennsylvania, and MGM Grand Detroit in Michigan provides name recognition and reputation in contrast to its competitors.
Shared Liquidity Growth
Without an igaming presence in Delaware or Nevada, BetMGM (operating on the partypoker platform) was not able to connect its sites across state lines like WSOP has done. However, according to the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), it could join its Michigan and New Jersey players together. PokerStars was the first to do this in January 2023, and WSOP followed suit in late May 2024 (along with Nevada, which had already been connected to New Jersey). BetMGM had been working on its plan for Michigan and New Jersey for most of 2024.
On November 6, it did it. BetMGM Poker not only joined its New Jersey and Michigan poker sites, it did so with a bang. Its new combined player traffic immediately surpassed that of its competitors.
BetMGM Poker will have its ups and downs in the US online poker traffic wars. PokerStars will probably jump ahead when it hosts its next major online series, and WSOP will almost always surge when it hosts WSOP Circuit series online. In the summer and fall months, when there are WSOP Online bracelet events, that site will inevitably take the top traffic spot.
Preparing for PA
There is a point at which BetMGM Poker could truly soar. When the company combined its New Jersey and Michigan sites, Pokerfuse journalist Nick Jones noted that BetMGM also upgraded its software on those sites…and its Pennsylvania poker site.
This puts BetMGM in prime position to be the first to join its new MI-NJ site with Pennsylvania when that state signs the multi-state agreement and approves the connections. As previously reported, the state’s governor and regulator are working to make it happen.
If Pennsylvania signs MSIGA in the next month or so, it will likely be a race between PokerStars and BetMGM to be the first to include Pennsylvania in their multi-state networks of players. WSOP is historically slow but will be incentivized to get it done before the summer 2025 World Series of Poker, as it will then be able to offer just one set of online events for US players.
Is Nevada Next for BetMGM?
That is the big question.
BetMGM could be a strong competitor in Nevada, as the WSOP is currently the sole provider of online poker in the state. It has been for more than a decade. Not only was PokerStars excluded from the original law permitting online poker in Nevada for the first decade of the industry, WSOP has dominated because of its offering of WSOP Online bracelets and WSOP Circuit events, as well as affiliated online satellites. But BetMGM has strong land-based connections, more so in Vegas than anywhere else. BetMGM offers summer live events at popular Las Vegas poker room Aria, but MGM also owns and could tap into its other Vegas casinos with poker rooms: Bellagio and MGM Grand. That doesn’t even factor in the possible future usage of other MGM properties in Vegas: Vdara, Cosmopolitan, Mandalay Bay, Delano, Four Seasons, Park MGM, NoMad, New York New York, Luxor, Excalibur, and Signature.
Even if BetMGM simply expanded its current live offerings at Aria to bolster its live and online poker offerings in Nevada, the company could give the WSOP a run for its money.
The kicker is that Entain, which owns BetMGM software partypoker, did renew its longstanding Bwin.party online poker license in Nevada earlier this year. The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) approved it in May, and Pokerfuse speculated that BetMGM could work toward NV online poker. That would need to launch as a ring-fenced Nevada site first, it appears, before it could join with its sister sites in other states. Nevertheless, there are signs that it could happen in 2025.
BetMGM is tight-lipped about its future plans. But with the smooth rollout of its first interstate poker platform this month, the powers-that-be could be inspired to keep up the momentum with Pennsylvania and even Nevada.
