Former England footballers Danny Mills and Andy Cole added some glitz and glamour to the £220 buy-in 888 Live Local London Main Event in Aspers Casino, Stratford, as 888Poker announce a 12-month branding deal with the London poker room.

888Poker, the world’s second largest online poker room, have inked a deal with Aspers Casino, Stratford. The 12-month deal will see 888Poker branding adorn the poker room walls, and a series of monthly events held to promote live poker. The deal is similar to the one partypoker struck with the Nottingham card room and casino Dusk till Dawn (DTD).

The announcement came during the kick off for their 888 Local Live Tour. The £220 buy-in Main Event attracted 590 players. They smashed the £50,000 guarantee with £116,820 heading into the coffers.

“It’s a twelve-month partnership we’ve agreed to cross promote live poker with online poker. Because of how strong 888 are in the UK market it made sense to do the partnership with them. There are a lot of synergies between Aspers and our mind set in how we see poker developing in the future.” Said John Scanlon, Head of Poker at Aspers Casino.