Online poker cardroom
Screenshot of the Pokerstars GUI (the "classic" theme) at a real money table
PokerStars is an online poker cardroom.[1] 🔔 It is the largest real money online poker site in the world,[2][3] controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker 🔔 market,[4] and can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.
A PokerStars online satellite tournament produced 🔔 the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP)[5] champion, Chris Moneymaker. As the first person to become a world champion by 🔔 qualifying at an online poker site,[6] Moneymaker's 2003 win was an important factor in catalyzing the poker boom of the 🔔 mid-2000s. The press has called this the "Moneymaker effect."[7]
PokerStars was part of The Stars Group until it was sold to 🔔 Flutter Entertainment, owner of the Irish gambling company Paddy Power, on May 5, 2024.[8]
History [ edit ]
PokerStars launched its beta 🔔 play-money-only site on September 11, 2001.[9] The company began offering real money wagering on December 12, 2001. PokerStars was originally 🔔 a Costa Rican company, Rational Enterprises, part of Canadian company The Stars Group which was majority owned by the Canadian 🔔 Scheinberg family.[10][11] The company was subsequently moved to Onchan, Isle of Man. The move was driven by the establishment of 🔔 a 0% corporate tax rate and the removal of rules barring companies from accepting casino and poker bets from the 🔔 United States.[10] PokerStars holds numerous licences in other jurisdictions (see Regulated Markets below). In February 2012, PokerStars acquired a European 🔔 Union license granted by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Commission.[12]
While privately owned, PokerStars had been the subject of financial media 🔔 speculation regarding a possible initial public offering or merger with a publicly listed company. Analysts estimated its market value would 🔔 have been approximately US$2 billion in 2006, which would have made the company one of the world's largest privately held 🔔 gambling companies.[11] PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the world's largest online poker room after the U.S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet 🔔 Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Many sites, including PartyPoker, immediately suspended business with U.S. gamblers, while others, including PokerStars, did 🔔 not.[13]
In December 2009, PokerStars set the world record for the biggest online tournament. The tournament entry fee wasR$1, and the 🔔 number of entrants reached 149,196.[14] They broke that record in December 2011, when 200,000 players played in aR$1 buy-in tournament 🔔 with a first prize ofR$50,000.[15] PokerStars was so busy during the early stages of the tournament, all tournaments had to 🔔 be stopped for 20 minutes because the heavy traffic crashed their servers. This record had been broken again in June 🔔 2013, with 225,000 participants. The buy-in wasR$1 and went completely into the prize pool, with no rake.
In January 2012, PokerStars 🔔 introduced a downloadable mobile client for iOS from iTunes. In February 2012, the company also introduced a client for Android.[16]
In 🔔 July 2012, PokerStars bought its former competitor, Full Tilt Poker.[17] TheR$731 million deal settled a civil lawsuit with the Department 🔔 of Justice while giving ownership of Full Tilt Poker's assets to PokerStars.[18]
In June 2014, The Stars Group, then known as 🔔 Amaya Inc, agreed to buy PokerStars and its parent company forR$4.9 billion in cash.[19][20] The deal was completed on August 🔔 1, 2014.[21] Later the deal led to a major insider trading investigation conducted by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) 🔔 over a four-year period concerning Amaya Inc.[22][23]
As of April 2024, they have reached an agreement with Netent to add desktop 🔔 and mobile gambling games to its poker lobby in New Jersey and other locations.[24]
In February 2024, Microgaming announced a partnership 🔔 with PokerStars, owned by parent company for the integration of its Quickfire platform.[25]
In July 2024, PokerStars agreed to a deal 🔔 with bankruptcy administrators to acquire some of rival PKR's assets without reviving the brand, while refunding the full account balances 🔔 of the entire PKR player base.[26]
In December 2024, PokerStars unveiled a brand new player tournament called the PokerStars Players No 🔔 Limit Hold'em Championship, which is to be held in January 2024. The tournament is expected to become one of the 🔔 biggest events in the annual poker calendar with a twenty-five thousand dollar buy in and aR$1 million bonus for the 🔔 eventual winner.[27][28]
In March 2024, The Stars Group reached an agreement with gaming company Sugal & Damani to support the launch 🔔 of its PokerStars brand in India.[29][30]
In September 2024, PokerStars launched PokerStars VR, a fully immersive virtual reality poker experience.[31][32] The 🔔 platform was developed in collaboration with virtual reality software developer Lucky VR and was unveiled at EGX 2024.[33][34]
In October 2024, 🔔 The Stars Group, owner of PokerStars, agreed to be acquired by Flutter Entertainment, in aR$6 billion all-share merger.[35][36] On May 🔔 5, 2024, PokerStars became part of Flutter Entertainment.[37]
In 2024, Pokerstars entered into a partnership with Red Bull Racing, sponsoring their 🔔 Formula 1 team, with the brand to appear on Red Bull's new cars for the next few seasons, as well 🔔 as on the suits of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez.[38]
In January 2024, PokerStars announced an extended multi-year partnership deal with 🔔 Red bull racing. The deal included PokerStars’ branding on the RB18 and race suits. The company stated they aim to 🔔 provide fans “new and unique ways” to watch the sport in addition to increase technological advancements.[39]
In April 2024, Pokerstars launched 🔔 their peer-to-peer betting exchange which allowed customers to enter their own odds and bet against other customers.[40]
In December 2024, Pokerstars 🔔 announced that Michigan and New Jersey players would be unable to access their servers on December 12 and December 13 🔔 for a “major upgrade of the site” . This upgrade is to allow Michigan and New Jersey poker players to 🔔 play together, as both states are participants in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). Pokerstars stated, “The upgrade is a 🔔 necessary milestone to bring more games, bigger prize pools and guarantees in poker tournaments so New Jersey and Michigan poker 🔔 players can compete against one another in the near future."[41]
Games [ edit ]
PokerStars offers multiple poker variations: Texas hold 'em, 🔔 Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Courchevel, Stud, Stud Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Razz, Five-card draw, 2-7 Triple Draw & 🔔 2-7 Single Draw, Badugi, HORSE, HOSE, Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo, Triple Stud and 8-Game Mix. PokerStars also offers "Mixed 🔔 Games," which rotate through several of these games.[42]
PokerStars averages over 15,000 players playing real money cash games daily.[43]
PokerStars launched Zoom 🔔 Poker in March 2012, with an official launch in May 2012. Zoom Poker is a fast fold ring game poker 🔔 format where opponents change after every hand. The aim of Zoom poker is to offer players more hands of poker 🔔 than in a regular ring game.[44] In January 2013 PokerStars rolled out Zoom Poker Tournaments due to popular demand for 🔔 the fast fold variant [45]
Online tournaments [ edit ]
The site's weekly Sunday Million tournament has a guaranteedR$1 million prize pool 🔔 and aR$215 buy-in. The Sunday Million is the biggest weekly online poker tournament. On March 7, 2011, The 5th Anniversary 🔔 Sunday Million broke records, with 59,128 players creating a total prize pool ofR$11,825,600.[46]
World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has been 🔔 running since 2002 and is regarded[by whom?] as the online equivalent of the World Series of Poker. The WCOOP tournament 🔔 series is the largest online poker series and pays out the largest prizes in online poker. The WCOOP 2010 Main 🔔 Event champion Tyson "POTTERPOKER" Marks wonR$2.2 Million, the largest online tournament prize in history.[47]
Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) was 🔔 established in 2009 and has since become the most popular online tournament series.[48] Unlike WCOOP, there are three different buy-in 🔔 stakes in the SCOOP events: Low, Medium (10x Low stake) and High (100x Low stake).
Micro Millions was launched in March 🔔 2012 as a tournament series designed for recreational and micro-stakes players offering a low buy-in tournament schedule and large guaranteed 🔔 cash prizes. PokerStars guaranteedR$5 million in prize pools for the second installment of MicroMillions.[49]
In 2014, PokerStars was hosting 500,000 online 🔔 tournaments each day.[50]
Live poker tours [ edit ]
PokerStars sponsors various live poker tours such as the European Poker Tour (EPT), 🔔 Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT), 🔔 Eureka Poker Tour, Italian Poker Tour (IPT), Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT), Australia & New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), France Poker 🔔 Series (FPS), Belgian Poker Series (BPS), Russian Poker Series (RPS) and Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP).
PokerStars VR [ edit ]
Pokerstars 🔔 VR is a free-play poker game for Oculus and Steam VR platforms that was released in 2024. It allows players 🔔 to get free chips and use them to play Texas hold 'em as well as roulette, blackjack, slots, and sports 🔔 betting, although the winnings cannot be transferred into real money. Players can use store credits to buy cosmetics and props 🔔 for use in games. As of February 2024 it was the 14th most popular game on Meta Quest.[51]
Pokerstars is a 🔔 company website offering only free play games. The pokerstars domain is used primarily in their TV advertisements since there are 🔔 no real money games available at this website. This avoids any legal issues or censorship of using their pokerstars domain 🔔 which allows real money games.
PokerStars.tv is the online source for PokerStars TV shows, commercials and event highlight shows – with 🔔 commentary and expert analysis available in up to 7 languages. The content available includes live cards-up coverage of the biggest 🔔 PokerStars tournaments, TV shows such as The Million Dollar Challenge and PokerStars Big Game and online tournament highlights from WCOOP 🔔 and SCOOP.
Team PokerStars [ edit ]
PokerStars sponsors a team of professional poker players known as Team PokerStars. As of 2024 🔔 , the team consists of André Akkari, Arlie Shaban, Ben Spragg, David Kaye, Felix Schneiders, Fintan Hand, Georgina James, Jennifer 🔔 Shahade, Lasse Jagd Lauritsen, Laurie Tournier, Lex Veldhuis, Nicholas Walsh, Parker Talbot, Rafael Moraes, Ramón Colillas, Sam Grafton and Sebastian 🔔 Huber.[52]
Celebrity players [ edit ]
Former Brazil striker Ronaldo pictured with PokerStars in 2014
PokerStars also has had a Celebrity team and 🔔 a Sports team, called respectively "Friends of PokerStars" and "SportStars". These have included Jamaican Olympic gold medal winner and World 🔔 record holder Usain Bolt and American actor / comedian Kevin Hart.[53] Former associated celebrities include World Cup winning Brazilian striker 🔔 Ronaldo,[54] tennis pro Rafael Nadal,[55] former tennis champion Boris Becker, FIFA World Cup-winning Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Manchester United star 🔔 Cristiano Ronaldo, Dutch field hockey Olympic Gold medalist Fatima Moreira de Melo, Norwegian cross-country skier Petter Northug, Swedish cross-country skier 🔔 Marcus Hellner, quantitative analyst and author of the 'Chen Formula' for Texas Hold'em Bill Chen,[56] Brazilian auto racer and race 🔔 team owner Gualter Salles and French rugby union international Sébastien Chabal.
Regulated markets [ edit ]
PokerStars and PokerStars.eu operate worldwide under 🔔 a license from the Maltese government. PokerStars also operates under separate government licenses in Denmark, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and 🔔 Estonia.[57] In October 2008, PokerStars launched PokerStars.it, exclusively for Italian players, which offers real money tournaments in euros in addition 🔔 to the usual play money games. PokerStars offers some ring games and tournaments on its main PokerStars site in euros. 🔔 In March 2010, the site began allowing users to keep their real-money accounts in British pounds and Canadian dollars as 🔔 well as U.S. dollars and euros.
In March 2024, PokerStars launched in New Jersey for real money.[58][59]
In June 2024, PokerStars ceased 🔔 to allow real-money online poker in Israel. The decision is thought to have been made after recent pressure from the 🔔 country's banking regulator on financial institutions demanding they stop processing online gambling transactions.[60]
In July 2024, PokerStars stopped offering real money 🔔 games to players who are physically located in, or have a registered address in, Slovenia.[61]
In July 2024, PokerStars withdrew from 🔔 the Portuguese market. In November 2024 the Portuguese regulator, Serviços de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ) issued its first 🔔 online poker license to The Stars Group's subsidiary REEL Europe Limited. As a result, legal online poker returned to Portugal.[62]
In 🔔 November 2024, PokerStars was cleared to launch in Pennsylvania for real money in 2024.[63]
On January 29, 2024, Pokerstars launched in 🔔 Michigan. Pokerstars was Michigan's first regulated online poker site.
In December 2024, Pokerstars announced the would be combining players from Michigan 🔔 and New Jersey under the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement.
Domain name seizure [ edit ]
On April 15, 2011, the Department of 🔔 Justice seized the internet addresses of the three online gambling sites,[64] a total of five URLs: Pokerstars, Fulltiltpoker, Absolutepoker, 🔔 Ultimatebet and UB.
On April 15, 2011, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York seized and shut 🔔 down Pokerstars and several of its competitors' sites, alleging that the sites were violating federal bank fraud and money laundering 🔔 laws.[65] On April 20, 2011, the U.S. Attorney's office returned control of the Pokerstars domain name to the company in 🔔 order "to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. players’ funds held in account with the companies."[66]
On July 10, 2012, PokerStars, asserting 🔔 the Government had insufficient grounds on which to base the charges, filed motions to dismiss the charges against them.[67]
On July 🔔 31, 2012, the US government dismissed with prejudice all civil complaints against PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker after reaching a 🔔 settlement with PokerStars which includes PokerStars acquiring Full Tilt.[17] Under the terms of the settlement, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker 🔔 admitted no wrongdoing for their past U.S. activities. The U.S. Government acknowledged both companies can apply for licenses to operate 🔔 online gaming in the U.S. when a legal framework for such licenses is offered.[68] The settlement terms also called for 🔔 PokerStars to acquire certain assets of Full Tilt Poker from the Government.
On August 9, 2012, PokerStars paidR$225 million to the 🔔 U.S. Department of Justice, consummating the asset transfer of Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt Poker was successfully relaunched on November 🔔 6, 2012.[69]
