Leading online gaming entertainment and solutions provider, 888 Holdings Public Limited Company (888) (888:London), recently announced that it launched what it claims is the second largest poker site in the world, 888Poker, in Italy on Jan. 3, 2018.

The launch of the poker site builds on the Gibraltar-based company’s successful sports betting and casino offerings already established in the Italian market and gels with the Group’s strategy to further grow its presence in regulated markets.

The move means that all three of 888’s core gaming verticals, including sports betting, casino and poker, are now available in Italy, which for the Group is an increasingly significant growth market.

888poker.it offers players the unique poker assets of 888 and features the complete range of its poker variants. Included are two extremely popular formats for 888’s primarily recreational player base, SNAP Poker and Poker Blast. The former a high speed, fast-fold poker game, and the latter a four-player poker game that lasts eight minutes and offers a prize pool of up to €300,000, according to the press release (pdf).

Commenting on the launch of 888poker.it, COO of 888 Holdings, Itai Pazner, said: “We’re delighted to bring our poker site to the Italian market, which fits with our strategy to expand 888’s presence in regulated markets and strengthens our position for the forthcoming pooling of players across selected European markets. Following the success of our sports betting and casino products in the market, it was a natural step to offer our poker brand to our Italian customers so they can enjoy all three products, seamlessly and in one place.”

888poker.it launched on Jan. 3 2018 with a brand new advertising campaign. The campaign features the tag line “Il Gioco inizia adesso! (Let the games begin!)”, and will appear across a broad range of print publications and leading television channels in Italy.