INSIGHT-European stock traders place their blockbuster bets in the dark Reuters 1 hour ago By Saikat Chatterjee and Thyagaraju Adinarayan LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - Think of an exclusive poker game where the minimum bet is close to $1 million. The stock-trading version, "dark pools" that host blockbuster trades, are pulling in major money in Europe. Their rise has been swift. On June 24, 2016 - the day after the Brexit vote - just 3% of trades on the London Stock Exchange's Turquoise shares platform were carried out in its dark pool via so-called block trades, mega-bets of around $800,000 or more. Fast forward about four years to Nov. 9, 2020 - another momentous day for markets, when Pfizer was the first COVID-19 vaccine developer to announce it had produced an effective shot - and 58% of trades were executed in these giant blocks.