Many EU countries on the list have made moves recently to curb or prohibit online poker. Greece, Poland, Romania and Cyprus all make the list.
Finland and Serbia, which have their own small regulated online poker markets, are also listed.
According to the email sent by the
bwin.party affiliates team, seen by pokerfuse, the removal from these markets was for "commercial reasons." A
bwin.party spokesperson was not available to further comment prior to publication of this article.
Three South American countries—Argentina, Brazil and Colombia—will also be blocked. To some, these markets were key potential growth opportunities; PokerStars' Ronaldo signing underscores one competitor's commitment to the market.
The reason behind the decision is likely a mix of regulatory concern and simple cost analysis. The remaining countries on the list—Armenia, Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Slovenia and Ukraine—may simply represent markets too small to profitably maintain support staff and marketing in the target languages.