Yahoo Poker Set to Leave US Market as It Axes Traditional Poker Variants
In a surprising turn of events, the popular game of poker featured on Yahoo will be pulled from the market come the end of this year. Yahoo has announced they will be discontinuing several of their older games, with poker being one of them. This move comes shortly after a heavy advertising push for the game, sparking speculation that the online giant may be considering dipping their toes into the world of real money online gambling.
Players who visit the Yahoo Poker page now are greeted by the message, "As of December 31st, 2014, Yahoo Games will no longer offer the Yahoo Classic Games including Yahoo Poker, Yahoo Pool and Yahoo Bingo on web or mobile devices." The same message also appeared as a pop-up when the game was loaded.
The Recent Marketing Push Sparked Questions
Yahoo Poker has been around for a while, with its roots tracing back to the late 1990s. The sudden interest and marketing efforts for the game left many wondering if the company had bigger plans for it, possibly even entering the realm of real money poker games. In November, ads for Yahoo Poker started appearing on the company's fantasy football web pages. This is prime ad space for attracting the young male audience that's often targeted for online poker.
This version of Yahoo Poker was nothing like a real money poker site, however; it was more similar to a social game. Players could spend real money to buy extra chips and a few other perks, but there were no real prizes, and the games were never played for actual cash. Nevertheless, one analyst saw the ads as a potential sign that Yahoo might have bigger plans for poker.
"The new Yahoo Texas Hold'em portal could be easily monetized if the legal environment were to become more favorable," wrote Marc Edelman, an Associate Professor of Law at the City University of New York's Baruch College, in a piece for Forbes. "It seems for now that Yahoo is certainly preparing in advance for the potential day of widespread, legal online poker."
It's unclear if this analysis was too optimistic, as Yahoo hasn't expressed any intentions to offer real money online poker or gambling worldwide. However, the speculation raised quite a stir in the poker community, with some players expressing excitement at the idea of a new major player joining the online gambling scene.
Focus on Core Experiences for Yahoo
But any dreams of Yahoo venturing into the world of real money online poker seem to have been squashed by the recent announcement. According to Yahoo, the decision to discontinue these games was made because many of them are outdated. Their older games no longer meet the current security requirements and use outdated technology, making them incompatible, insecure, and not functioning properly.
Forbes also reported on an email by Yahoo Games PR Manager Sean Hamel, who explained the main reason: "to streamline our product offerings and focus our energy and resources on developing for Yahoo's core experiences."
For fans of Yahoo Poker, there might be a silver lining. Yahoo has hinted at introducing new games that might work better with their modern software and security requirements. While details are scarce, these games will likely follow the "free-to-play" format, where players can buy in-game perks for real money, just like in popular games such as Farmville or Candy Crush.
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