> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.igamingnews.biz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # BetRivers Poker Nears MSIGA's First Five-State Network - URL: https://www.igamingnews.biz/betrivers-poker-msiga-five-state-network/ - Published: 2026-08-20T12:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T15:52:36.000Z - Description: BetRivers Poker is one New Jersey licence away from the first five-state MSIGA poker network, as WSOP and FanDuel race for the same six liquidity states. - Author: iGamingNews Editorial Desk - Tags: Analysis, Markets, Technology *Image credit: Source: state gaming regulator filings and company press releases. Never imply stock depicts the actual event.* **Rush Street Interactive's BetRivers Poker is one New Jersey licence away from running the first five-state shared-liquidity poker network in US history, the clearest sign yet that the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, known as MSIGA, has replaced new-state legalization as the actual growth engine of American online poker.** BetRivers already pools Pennsylvania, Michigan, Delaware and West Virginia into one network, launched June 10, 2025, [Rush Street Interactive said in its own announcement](https://ir.rushstreetinteractive.com/news/news-details/2025/Rush-Street-Interactive-Launches-Multi-State-BetRivers-Poker-Network-Unifying-Players-Across-Four-States/default.aspx?ref=igamingnews.biz). Adding New Jersey would take its addressable population from roughly 26 million to nearly 36 million, according to Pokerfuse's tracking of the pending application, and put BetRivers ahead of the two rival networks it is chasing: Caesars' four-state WSOP Online and FanDuel's three-state PokerStars. No legislature has to vote for any of this. New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement only has to approve a licence application already filed. That distinction is the whole story: the fight over who wins US online poker has moved from statehouses to regulators' inboxes. ## MSIGA's six states are the whole live market MSIGA is a compact, not a law. It lets a state's Governor authorize licensed operators to combine player pools across state lines for online poker, first signed by Nevada and Delaware in 2014\. Pennsylvania became the sixth member on April 23, 2025, when Governor Josh Shapiro signed on, [according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board](https://gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov/news-and-transparency/press-release/governor-shapiro-signs-multi-state-internet-gaming-agreement?ref=igamingnews.biz), which cited roughly 150,000 PA online poker players who stood to gain from bigger tables. Delaware, Michigan, Nevada and West Virginia round out the group. That six-state list matters more than it looks. Nine states have legalized online poker on paper, but only six have a live, regulated poker site, according to Pokerfuse and PokerScout's state-by-state trackers. Those six are exactly the six MSIGA members. Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine all have poker legalized in statute and zero operators running a table. Connecticut shows why. Its 2021 gaming law never gave the state authority to join a multi-state pact, so no operator has ever launched real-money poker there. A 2025 fix, Senate Bill 1464, got a Joint Favorable committee vote on March 21, 2025, [according to the bill's own committee report](https://www.cga.ct.gov/2025/JFR/S/PDF/2025SB-01464-R00GL-JFR.PDF?ref=igamingnews.biz), backed in testimony by DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics Betting & Gaming and Mohegan Sun Digital, an unusual show of unanimous industry support. The bill still died before a floor vote. A market of Connecticut's size, alone, is not worth a platform build for any operator; only MSIGA access would be. Rhode Island and Maine sit in the same trap. ## Three operators, one strategy With new states frozen out, the operators that already hold MSIGA licences are racing to stitch the same six states into rival networks instead: - **WSOP Online (Caesars Entertainment):** Nevada, New Jersey and Michigan since May 2024, added Pennsylvania on April 28, 2025, [Caesars said in its own release](https://newsroom.caesars.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2025/Caesars-Entertainment-Expands-WSOP-Online-Becoming-the-First-Online-Poker-Operator-to-Pool-Liquidity-Across-Four-United-States-Jurisdictions/default.aspx?ref=igamingnews.biz). Four states. - **PokerStars, exclusively on FanDuel:** Flutter Entertainment merged its PokerStars brand into the FanDuel app across Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on April 1, 2026, a launch its own general manager, Aaron Dugan, [described as combining](https://www.stocktitan.net/news/FLUT/poker-stars-exclusively-on-fan-duel-goes-live-with-bigger-player-23fdj55hdz0i.html?ref=igamingnews.biz) "PokerStars' industry-leading poker experience with FanDuel's scale and reach." Three states, and the deepest brand consolidation the US market has seen, a rebranding echo of [PokerStars' own platform migration in the UK](https://www.igamingnews.biz/pokerstars-betfair-uk-platform-migration/) under the same parent company, detailed in [FanDuel's recent leadership transition](https://www.igamingnews.biz/fanduel-leadership-transition-howe-genetski/). - **BetRivers Poker (Rush Street Interactive):** Pennsylvania, Delaware, Michigan and West Virginia, with New Jersey pending. Four states now, five if approved. None of these three had to out-market the others to gain share. They had to out-file each other with regulators. That is a different competitive game than the one operators play in [sportsbook and casino platform strategy](https://www.igamingnews.biz/igaming-platform-build-vs-buy/), where the build-versus-buy decision is about technology cost. In poker, the input that matters is which jurisdictions a network is licensed to combine, not how good the software is on its own. Smaller networks can still win share this way. BetRivers took 9.7% of the US online poker market in May 2026, up from 8.1% in April, on $828,000 in monthly revenue, according to Poker Industry PRO estimates reported by Pokerfuse. WSOP Online led the month at $2.8 million, FanDuel Poker followed at $2.6 million, and BetMGM Poker, which runs no multi-state pool at all, still placed third at $2.3 million on brand strength alone. The total US online poker market runs about $8 million a month by that same estimate, a fraction of what sports betting or online casino generates, which is exactly why liquidity, not marketing budget, is the one lever left that can move a smaller operator's share. ## New Jersey is the only new market that matters Nobody in this fight is waiting on a new state to legalize poker. Nine states have already tried that, and only six ever turned it into a functioning market. The industry's actual growth event this year is a paperwork approval in Trenton, not a bill signing anywhere else. If New Jersey clears BetRivers, the operator becomes the first to run a five-state poker network in US history and resets what "biggest" means in this market, at least until Caesars or FanDuel add a state of their own. If it does not, MSIGA stays a six-state ceiling that three operators keep re-slicing among themselves, while Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine keep proving that a poker law without a compact is not a market at all. **Related reading:** [US iGaming legalization is stuck, and here is why](https://www.igamingnews.biz/us-igaming-legalization-stall/) · [PokerStars UK moves onto the Betfair platform](https://www.igamingnews.biz/pokerstars-betfair-uk-platform-migration/) · [Amy Howe departs FanDuel as Christian Genetski takes over](https://www.igamingnews.biz/fanduel-leadership-transition-howe-genetski/) · [The iGaming platform is an operator's biggest bet](https://www.igamingnews.biz/igaming-platform-build-vs-buy/)