Full Tilt Poker to pull out of Italian market

The rumors about an imminent launch of Full Tilt Poker in Italy increased when the room's former parent company, The Rational Group applied to Italy's gambling authority AAMS or a casino license.

Although the website at FullTilt.it continues to display a "Coming Soon" webpage, Agimeg adds that Amaya's plans are now to focus all the efforts on Poker Stars and capitalize the room's leading position in Italy by adding some casino games to the existing platform, rather than launching a brand new one.

As the new Amaya strategy was announced, Barbara Beltrami stepped down from her country manager position at PokerStars.it after six years, as she will focus exclusively on her new position as Senior Project Manager for Southern Europe.

By mid-October Beltrami will leave the room's top chair to Marco Trucco, EuroBet's current Gaming Director. Trucc's experience in the Italian gambling industry is expected to help PokerStars enter the online casino gambling market.

In addition to his time at EuroBet, Trucco previously worked for the Everest Group and has a consolidated knowledge of Italy's online casino industry. From 2011 to 2012 he worked as Chief Executive Officer at Casino Italia, an Italian online gambling hub which included a casino room, a poker room and a sportsbook.