Considering that gambling's been around almost as long as the human race, developing a unique new gambling product can be pretty difficult. Most new games are thus the result of developers twisting older games into a new form. Such is the case with the new Pokerschool.com site being developed by bookmaker Victor Chandler.
A joint venture between Victor Chandler and MoneyGuru (a U.K. financial site), Pokerschool.com is a real-money variation of a free-play MoneyGuru game in which players are dealt the names of various corporations instead of cards. "The joint venture intends to launch the same game, but based on sports with hands carrying the names of football teams, for example, with values varying depending on form," Andrea Sander-Williams, marketing manager for MoneyGuru, explained.
Players are part of a betting pool for the weekly games, with prize money shared among the winners depending on their final position in a league table. A player's hand rises and falls with his team's fortune throughout the week. Cards can be discarded or changed--for a fee--and a player can score more by holding two of the same card in one hand. (Conversely, if a player holds two of the same card, and the card drops in value, it's a double whammy).
A launch date for the Pokerschool.com site has yet to be announced.