PokerStars Correcting an Unbalanced System

Home » Poker News » PokerStars Correcting an Unbalanced System

Friday, April 28th, 2017 | Written by Stephen Smith

PokerStars has attracted a lot of controversy since the brand was bought by Canadian company Amaya in 2014, with much of the criticism shot its way by a relatively small, yet vocal and demanding portion of the poker community that wants the firm to stop changing the way it does business.

According to its detractors, the new changes and innovations implemented at PokerStars represent a major cash grab by Amaya, with the critics stating that it is taking PokerStars away from its traditional poker roots, and moving it toward becoming a sports and casino betting site, instead. In their scathing attacks, disgruntled regular poker grinders have labelled what PokerStars is doing as a total attack on their profession.

PokerStars Rewards Program

There have been numerous changes that have caused issues between high-volume players and PokerStars, such as lottery style Spin and Go tournaments, sports betting and casino options, rake increases, new formats that depend more on luck, and the removal of basically all heads-up table games. However, the most controversial changes have to do with innovations made to the PokerStars Reward s program, which have badly hurt these players’ bottom line, and some of rewards they were accustomed to receiving.

So what is the brands strategy going forward? PokerStars believe that the changes are totally necessary, and it has been trying to impart this information to those players who continue to be convinced that they are being mistreated. The truth of the matter, though, is that they aren’t being mistreated at all, but instead are just being treated less well than they think they deserve.

An Unbalanced System

PokerStars cites the need to rectify what has become an unbalanced system that has resulted from seismic changes in the poker world since the UIGEA of 2006, and Black-Friday of 2011. Consequently, on the one hand there is currently a serious shortage of recreational players willing to make deposits at online poker sites, while on the other there exists a wealth of regular grinders who are regularly withdrawing their earnings. This doesn’t means that PokerStars wants to turn the pros into losers, but it does mean that the operator harbors a dislike for the way that the online professionals go about making their money. Notably, the way they play an ultra-tight style over a number of tables, whilst depending upon the PokerStars Reward Program to make their profits.

Fewer Rewards for Sheer Volume

Somewhere along the line, such players started to believe that they deserved the right to earn their abundant rewards due to the sheer volume of tables they played, so much so that it became factored into their individual win rate. Because of this, people think that what they are experiencing is just a rake increase. While yes, the rake has certainly seen an increase in a few games, the cuts to their rewards is just the company taking back a perk that some players benefit from.

That said, there has never existed a pact between players and their poker rooms that states that the operators have to give players money or a refund on the price that they charge, just because they play a lot of games. What it comes down to is the fact that PokerStars, alongside the rest of the online poker world, is to blame for this criticism partially. The way these players have been acting and feeling is the sort of behavior that they have rewarded for so many years; the behavior just went unaddressed because the company did not want to cause any more backlash than Amaya already received when obtaining the brand in the first place.

Moving with the Times

Its no secret that the poker industry relies upon an injection of new, recreational players to add fresh liquidity to fund the games. Furthermore, since the poker era came to an abrupt end following draconian type legislation being implemented around the world, but most notably in the US, online poker sites have had to adapt to changing times. This means providing incentives for recreational players to compete against more skilled players at the virtual tables by leveling the playing field, as well as making their sites more attractive by offering general gambling products and innovations.

PokerStars was a little later to the party than many of its competitors, but the brand now seems squarely on the right path. Case in point, PokerStars now offers such products as an online casino, sportsbook, and fantasy draft, which in Q4 of 2016 accounted for 25.8% of Amaya’s revenues compared to the 17.2% share reported for the same quarter of 2015.