Online poker room, 888 Poker, and UK snooker and poker club chain, Rileys, are already hosting joint poker tournaments following the recent agreement between the two parties to collaborate on developing Rileys online poker room. The unique land-based online poker rooms partnership, which is a first of its kind in the UK, will see 888 operating Rileys Poker room for the next three years. The deal is a great opportunity for Riley's to cross sell its snooker and poker offering, both offline and online, and will maximize marketing potential for 888's online casino and poker room.

Both companies expressed great optimism regarding how much they will both stand to benefit by sharing the same player base. Direct links to 888's online casino and poker room are clearly visible on the homepage of Rileyspoker.com. By doing so, 888 hopes to develop Riley's own player base, while still sending traffic their way. Considering Riley's has over 525,000 registered players, the potential for increased business online is enormous.

As mentioned, 888 and Riley's have already begun hosting live, offline poker tournaments at many of its clubs. These will soon expand to regional league tables, televised events and more online and offline tournaments. In fact most of the collaborative tournaments will involve both offline and online activity. Chief Executive of 888. Gigi Levy, said that Riley's unique reach both online and offline serves as a unique opportunity to steadily host poker tournaments in which players can qualify online, and then walk into a Rileys club and finish out the tournament in true form.

Levy was also excited about how 888's decision to sponsor the World Snooker Championship will greatly expand 888's marketing reach and attract a demographic with a propensity to play online casino games and online poker. Peter Haspel, who is the Managing Director for Georgica (parent company of Rileys) said the company has been looking for an online partner following tremendous success several offline poker tournaments. He went on to say that 888 was a natural choice for Rileys to go into partnership with.