Home / Poker News November 2011 / The Poker Grapevine – PokerStars Sponsors Soccer Stadium
The Poker Grapevine – PokerStars Sponsors Soccer Stadium
Posted by: Randy Williams - Wed, 2011-11-30 15:37
PokerStars have seriously set their minds on expansion. They appear to be taking advantage of every bit of opportunity to get the brand name out including sports sponsorships. They haven’t had much of a presence in Germany in this respect, but that’s about to change. PokerStars are about to become the latest online poker site to sponsor a soccer stadium in Lubeck. The stadium is the 18,000-seat Stadion an der Lohmuhle, to which the online poker site has recently gained naming rights. The venue will thus be called PokerStars.de - Stadion an der Lohmuhle. The stadium is the home of VfB Lubeck, a 4th division soccer team. The current contract is for a three-year period and its value is rumored to be around €120k per season.
The sporting venue is located in the German land of Schleswig-Holstein, an administrative entity which has recently legalized and regulated online poker. Online poker operators will be able to apply for licenses there beginning with March 2012.
In other news:
online poker traffic numbers have finally stopped dropping. Last week, there was an overall traffic-increase of 1% mostly stemming from strong numbers logged by PokerStars.
PokerStars was of course the top destination yet again, and this time it registered a 4% traffic increase. PokerStars are currently preparing to celebrate their 10th anniversary and they’re rolling out a bunch of promotions that may well be responsible for the traffic uptick.
The iPoker network came in second, for the second consecutive week. They saw a 1% drop but they managed to hang on to second place nonetheless. PartyPoker, the site to come in 3rd, saw a 2% drop. 888Poker was 4th and the Ongame network came in 5th.
One of the fastest growing poker rooms was yet again Bodog. From 15th place, the site came in 11th last week, looking to make the top 10 soon.
On a yearly basis, 888Poker is the biggest gainer.
