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The story
Founded by Isai Scheinberg and Mark Scheinberg in 2001.1
PokerStars launched its beta play-money-only site on September 11, 2001. 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. The company was subsequently moved to Douglas, 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. 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.
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$2,000,000,000 in 2006, which would have made the company one of the world's largest privately held gambling companies. 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.
In December 2009, PokerStars set the world record for the biggest online tournament. The tournament entry fee was $1, and the number of entrants reached 149,196. They broke that record in December 2011, when 200,000 players played in a $1 buy-in tournament with a first prize of $50,000. PokerStars was so busy during the early stages of the tournament that all tournaments had to be stopped for 20 minutes because the heavy traffic crashed their servers. This record was broken again in June 2013, with 225,000 participants. The buy-in was $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.
In July 2012, PokerStars bought its former competitor, Full Tilt Poker. The $731 million deal settled a civil lawsuit with the Department of Justice while giving ownership of Full Tilt Poker's assets to PokerStars.
In June 2014, The Stars Group, then known as Amaya Inc, agreed to buy PokerStars and its parent company for $4.9 billion in cash. The deal was completed on August 1, 2014. 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.
As of April 2016, they have reached an agreement with Netent to add desktop and mobile gambling games to its poker lobby in New Jersey and other locations.
In February 2017, Microgaming announced a partnership with PokerStars, owned by its parent company, for the integration of its Quickfire platform.
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In July 2017, PokerStars agreed to a deal with bankruptcy administrators to acquire some of rival PKR.com's assets without reviving the brand, while refunding the full account balances of the entire PKR player base.
In December 2017, PokerStars unveiled a brand new player tournament called the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold'em Championship, which is to be held in January 2019. The tournament is expected to become one of the biggest events in the annual poker calendar, with a $25,000 buy in and a $1 million bonus for the eventual winner.
In March 2018, The Stars Group reached an agreement with gaming company Sugal & Damani to support the launch of its PokerStars brand in India.
In September 2018, PokerStars launched PokerStars VR, a fully immersive virtual reality poker experience. The platform was developed in collaboration with virtual reality software developer Lucky VR and was unveiled at EGX 2018.
In October 2019, The Stars Group, owner of PokerStars, agreed to be acquired by Flutter Entertainment in a $6 billion all-share merger. On May 5, 2020, PokerStars became part of Flutter Entertainment.
In 2021, PokerStars entered into a partnership with Red Bull Racing, sponsoring their Formula One 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.
In January 2022, 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 increasing technological advancements.
In April 2022, PokerStars launched its peer-to-peer betting exchange, which allowed customers to enter their own odds and bet against other customers.
In December 2022, 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."
FanDuel migration in North America
In March 2026, Flutter Entertainment announced that PokerStars' standalone real money platforms in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ontario would be discontinued, with operations migrating to FanDuel under the branding "PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel." The move expanded the shared liquidity pool—previously established between New Jersey and Michigan in 2023—to include Pennsylvania, while Ontario remained a ring-fenced market.
Flutter stated that the merged player pool would enable larger tournament guarantees and greater cash game availability, and that the network structure would allow additional regulated states to join in the future. The transition involved the cessation of the existing PokerStars loyalty program and the discontinuation of progressive jackpots ahead of the platform switch.
The rebrand was seen as consistent with Flutter's broader North American strategy of consolidating its offerings under the FanDuel name, with the PokerStars brand expected to continue as Flutter's primary poker brand outside North America.
From Wikipedia’s article on PokerStars, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4