BLITZPOKER, the soon-to-be Indian gaming site fronted by Dan Bilzerian, has named the platform it intends to acquire.
Parent company i3 Interactive teased a takeover deal at the start of August, but declined to say which of India’s online poker sites it was targeting.
After much speculation, i3 has confirmed that it intends to take a controlling interest in FTR Poker. The deal is yet to be finalized, but FTR’s website and social media pages now show BLITZPOKER branding.The takeover will see BLITZPOKER became part of the Spartan Poker Network. Spartan’s parent company, Quadrific Media Pvt. Ltd, purchased FTR Poker in 2018. That deal made Spartan India’s fourth-largest poker operator.
Although it hasn’t been stated explicitly, i3 Interactive will purchase FTR Poker, but remain on the Spartan Network. Data supplied by PokerScout shows that Spartan has a seven-day average of 260 cash game players. This figure doesn’t take into account free-play and tournament players, and seems to be at odds with the figures quoted in i3 Interactive’s press release.
However large or small the current player pool is, BLITZPOKER CEO Chris Neville is confident the company’s marketing strategy will pay off.
“BlitzPoker has been growing at 30%-40% per month in the last quarter and has added 40,000 new customers. This type of growth is unheard of without seven to eight-figure marketing spends,” said Neville. Dan Bilzerian, a shareholder in BLITZPOKER, is at the heart of the site’s marketing strategy. With more than 30 million followers on Instagram, including seven million in India, his profile carries some weight.