Winamax could jump into Franco-Spanish liquidity sharing by April

French online poker site Winamax is gearing up to join PokerStars in shared liquidity between French and Spanish players.

The operator expects to launch its joint poker rooms within the next two months after getting the stamp of approval from ARJEL, France’s gambling regulator. It only needs one more stamp, this from the Spanish side from its regulatory body, the DGOJ. Once it is received, Winamax will turn on the lights on the virtual tables for Spanish and French poker enthusiasts.

Winamax already has approval in Italy, the third of the four countries in the liquidity sharing pact that also includes Portugal, when it bought the existing license of Italy’s online poker site, bet-at-home. Portugal has yet to approve Winamax’s request, and PokerStars is currently the only site authorized to operate online games in Spain’s western neighbor.

Portugal has let PokerStars be the only operator in the country for the past year, but that is about to change. Last week, the country’s ‘Official Journal’ released technical standards governing how liquidity sharing must operate. This means that locally licensed operators will soon be able to allow their players to join those in the other participating countries. Winamax and partypoker are ready for the trigger to be pulled, but 888poker has been silent on whether or not it will join the festivities.