Poker Stars And Rugby Football Union Now Partners

Poker Stars has just become the official partner of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). The deal was struck for a 2-year sponsorship as “official gaming and casino partner” of the RFU.

For Poker Stars this means lots of exclusive advertising space in Twickenham, the home of rugby in England, and in programs (or programmes to the English) for the matches held there.

What this means to online poker players is more tournaments that have rugby-related prizes, including some kick-off tournaments in November which will be awarding free tix to 3 England Internationals events: against Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand.

This is nowhere near PokerStars‘ first foray into blending athletic sports and poker. Currently running, in fact, are two promotional tie-ins with other major sporting outlets, providing players with even more ways to win free seats to some of the world’s biggest sporting events.

Like the free-to-enter NHL Alumni PokerStars Hockey Night. Players can win seats at home games for the Toronto Maple Leafs and play online poker against celebrity National Hockey League Alumni, vying for a chance to watch the NHL Hockey Championships live.

But getting back to the RFU, there’s also a big promotion running every day in October in which up for grabs is a seat at the Investec Challenge, to be held in November.

What this also means for PokerStars players is a whole lot more fish swimming to the site from the rugby community, many of whom are big gamblers with little poker ability. This deal could fatten more than the RFU and PokerStars’ pockets.