- Ever since Flutter Plc became PokerStars’ parent company back in 2019, the poker brand has been shifting its brand positioning — edging into lifestyle and entertainment first, poker second.
- PokerStars is the only online poker operator that puts emphasis on collaborating with mainstream content creators, such as True Geordie — who has over 2 million YouTube subscribers,
- PokerStars is also partnered up with Oracle Red Bull Racing — a pairing that is designed to “reach audiences who share similar passions and interests” for both companies.
“The entertainment of our community [is] our core objective, whether that be in the games we provide, the content we create, or the experiences we deliver.”
Ever since Flutter Plc became PokerStars’ parent company back in 2019, the poker brand has been shifting its brand positioning — edging into lifestyle and entertainment first, poker second.
As the company continued to pivot, back in late 2020, Martin Nieri, Global Creative Director at PokerStars told PRO that PokerStars sees “the entertainment of our community as our core objective, whether that be in the games we provide, the content we create, or the experiences we deliver.”
At present PokerStars continues to position itself as a lifestyle brand. The online poker operator that puts emphasis on collaborating with mainstream content creators, such as True Geordie — who has over 2 million YouTube subscribers or becoming a partner with Oracle Red Bull Racing — a pairing that is designed to “reach audiences who share similar passions and interests” for both companies.
PokerStars also partnered with F1 last year — a deal through which PokerStars branding will feature prominently and exclusively during European broadcasts of F1 races, with virtual trackside advertising during race weekends — to tap onto the millions of fans who tune into the F1 every season.
Beyond partnerships, internal brands have also been tweaked. PokerStars School became PokerStars Learn last year, in a rebranding exercise that better suited the stylish lifestyle branding that the company continues to take.
Now, Tom Warren, PokerStars Group Marketing Director sits down with Poker Industry PRO to talk all things PokerStars brand positioning and embracing putting lifestyle entertainment at the forefront of how the company wants to be seen in the market.
How do you see the PokerStars brand? To us, it seems you are moving into a primarily lifestyle entertainment company — if this is the case, how are you positioning yourself as such?
We are always excited to explore the stretchability of the PokerStars brand, looking for opportunities that our heritage and story allow us to explore, areas that some of our competitors perhaps couldn’t. This doesn’t distract us from serving our player communities across all our products and markets, however. Expanding the reach and perception of the brand with gaming players remains our core focus while keeping room to explore new ways to connect and entertain them, for example with the Oracle Red Bull Racing partnership.
“We definitely see our mission as being to entertain our players.”
What emphasis do you, as a company, put on entertainment? Do you think you are becoming a lifestyle/entertainment first, gambling company, second?
We definitely see our mission as being to entertain our players. When a customer chooses to interact with us, we see them as making a choice not just between gaming brands but also between other entertainment options, which is both a challenge and an opportunity. While it’s always tempting to cast a broad net across all entertainment, more practically it’s about exploring and learning from the broader entertainment category to improve our customer experience.
