If you haven’t heard, PokerStarsand New Jersey have been an ongoing soap opera in the online poker industry. One minute it looks like PokerStars is not going to be permitted entry into the market, the next minute everything looks rosy, then a minute later they are back on the outs.

Pala Interactive Chief Executive Officer Jim Ryan seems to think that PokerStars will be able to establish a presence in the Garden State at some point, as the specter of the world’s largest internet poker site is one of the reasons his company is putting off its own poker entry into the New Jersey market.

In an interview with CalvinAyre, Ryan was asked how PokerStars’ potential Garden State offering would affect Pala’s poker business. To summarize his words, “very negatively.” Here is what he said: “Right now, we’ve launched with our casino product… Our plan was to launch poker in Q1 of this year and, by and large, it’s ready to go… We put that on hold because we do expect PokerStars to enter the market, not that we would have grabbed a significant share because there are two very credible poker networks operating in the states of New Jersey at this point in time. Liquidity is obviously a challenge.”

The two “very credible” networks already competing in New Jersey are PartyPoker/Borgata Poker and a partnership between WSOP.com and 888 Poker. The latter two sites are technically separate entities, but recently agreed to share liquidity at many of their cash tables, likely in order to compete better with the Party/Borgata Network.

WSOP and 888 make up the market leader in New Jersey, drawing a seven-day average of 220 cash game players, according to PokerScout. The Party/Borgata Network used to be the big dog, but now trails with 180 cash game players.

Based on what Ryan (pictured) said in the interview, it almost seems like it didn’t matter to the company if PalaPoker succeeded in New Jersey, as Ryan’s eyes are set squarely on California. He said that Pala entered New Jersey with “three very specific objectives,” which were gaining experience with a regulatory process, testing out its technology platform, and allowing the management team to gain experience. All of the experience and knowledge gained in New Jersey would then be used to be competitive in California if online poker were ever legalized there.

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