PokerStars has opened the PokerStars Network to prospective outside operators, launching a sales website that promotes access to its shared player liquidity, tournament calendar and brand. The move turns a structure initially designed to combine Flutter-owned poker brands into a business-to-business proposition, although no third-party operator had been announced as joining in the Bonus.com report.
The new site offers three routes for partners: operating PokerStars products alongside their own branding, taking a white-label “Access” integration, or franchising the PokerStars name outright. The available portfolio includes the Sunday Million, Spin & Go and the European Poker Tour.
The site describes the network as “the largest regulated liquidity pool” and says it has 12 licences, operates in more than 130 countries and reaches more than 3 million players. PokerStrategy reported that incoming skins would apparently be able to offer the same games and VIP rewards as the main PokerStars liquidity pool.
The network’s first members have been Flutter brands. Betfair Poker left Playtech’s iPoker network on Aug. 13 and began operating as PokerStars on Betfair, gaining access to PokerStars’ global dot-com pool. Paddy Power Poker and Sky Poker were also expected to replace their existing products with PokerStars software and add liquidity to the global pool.
As we reported in August, PokerStars’ UK migration to the Betfair platform was the first stage of Flutter’s effort to combine its poker brands while retaining PokerStars software and access to its wider player pool.
Sisal is the sole case study on the new sales site, but it is also a Flutter-owned business, acquired in August 2022. Sisal changed its poker provider to PokerStars in December 2024; its case study says poker revenue subsequently rose by more than 50% and that network liquidity helped it secure more than 55% of the Italian market.
PokerStars has presented shared liquidity as a response to the fragmentation of regulated online poker. Chief commercial officer Mike Woodbridge said differing national rules had led PokerStars to exit certain markets and avoid others, leaving players with thinner fields and smaller tournament prizes. The company’s global platform also recorded an overall activity decline in Flutter’s second-quarter report.
Shared pools have long been part of PokerStars’ approach in regulated markets. In January 2018, it connected its locally licensed French and Spanish sites after regulators in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy agreed a framework for cross-border liquidity sharing. That pool was intended to deliver bigger prizes, promotions and a broader game choice.
The expansion also places PokerStars more directly alongside GGPoker’s skin model. GGPoker already works with third-party brands including OlyBet and Danske Spil. In a PokerScout comparison cited by PokerStrategy, GGPoker had 9,292 active cash-game players, against 2,479 for PokerStars and 173 for iPoker, underlining the liquidity gap PokerStars is seeking to address.
