Online poker giant PokerStars could be in line for a major boost to its traffic following one of Flutter’s biggest changes to its online poker operations in years.

On Monday, Flutter, the parent company of PokerStars, announced a major shake-up to its poker network, something that had been anticipated for several years. Starting August 13, Betfair Poker will leave the iPoker Network and move to the newly launched PokerStars Network (PSN), with the site to be rebranded as “PokerStars on Betfair.”

For players, the move means Betfair Poker will move onto the PokerStars software and gain access to the same games and tournaments available on the main PokerStars dot-com platform, including WCOOP, Sunday Million and Spin & Go. The Betfair brand will remain in place through the new co-branded site. The exception is Ireland, where Betfair Poker will close and players will instead be advised to move to the PokerStars dot-com network.

Later this year, two other Flutter-owned brands, Paddy Power and Sky Poker, will also move across to the PokerStars Network. That will leave three separate skins operating in the UK online poker market on the same platform and sharing liquidity, while PokerStars UK is expected to close later this year, with its customers able to access the network through one of the three remaining brands.

For PokerStars, the change marks a move towards the network model that many of its competitors have used for years. Rather than each brand operating its own poker product and player pool, several Flutter brands will now sit on the same platform, giving them access to a larger combined pool of players.

A Long-Awaited Consolidation

The move makes sense for Flutter, which has been running PokerStars, Betfair, Paddy Power and Sky Poker as separate poker brands, with the latter three operating through iPoker while PokerStars maintained its own platform.

Maintaining separate poker products means additional technology and operating costs, while also dividing players between different networks. Bringing them together allows Flutter to keep the individual brands while putting their customers into the same liquidity pool.

More importantly, it gives PokerStars access to players who were previously playing on other Flutter-owned poker sites. That could make a difference to both cash games and tournaments once all three migrations are complete.

PokerStars has been under pressure for several years, with regulatory changes, market exits, higher taxes and stronger competition contributing to a decline in traffic. The fragmentation of the international poker market has also made it harder to maintain the player pools that once supported its biggest games and tournaments.

Flutter has already taken a similar approach in other markets. In Italy, Sisal and SNAI moved onto the PokerStars Italy network, while in North America, PokerStars US and PokerStars Ontario moved to FanDuel under the “PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel” branding. That operation uses Playtech’s poker software, however, rather than the PokerStars platform.

The international market will retain PokerStars’ own software, with Sunday Million, SCOOP, WCOOP and Spin & Go continuing to form part of the offering while Betfair, Paddy Power and Sky Poker players join the same network.

Flutter says the changes are part of a move towards a “more liquidity-focused operating model” designed to improve the player experience and provide tailored regional experiences through the PokerStars Network.

Betfair Moves First

The first migration takes place this Thursday, August 13, when Betfair customers move to the new PokerStars on Betfair site. The platform will run on PokerStars’ software and share liquidity with the global PokerStars network, while Betfair’s existing iPoker skin will close.

PokerStars customers in the UK will then transition to the co-branded PokerStars on Betfair platform later this year. Paddy Power and Sky Poker are also expected to replace their existing poker products with PokerStars software at some point later in 2026.

The launch is notable because it will be only the second time in 25 years that a non-PokerStars brand has operated on the international PokerStars platform. The only previous example was Full Tilt Poker, which was migrated onto PokerStars following Flutter’s acquisition before eventually closing several years later.

The changes also come at a difficult time for PokerStars’ tournament business. WCOOP and SCOOP have seen their guarantees fall from previous highs, while the Sunday Million is no longer a weekly fixture in the same way it once was. Market exits and regulatory restrictions have also reduced the liquidity available to the international site.

Mike Woodbridge, Chief Commercial Officer at PokerStars, acknowledged the impact of those changes.

“PokerStars is the most iconic brand in global poker — these changes ensure that it remains a core, strategic brand within Flutter’s portfolio,” Woodbridge said. “In recent years the market environment has got harder for brands like PokerStars. A patchwork of regulation from one market to the next have fragmented the global game and led us to make the difficult decisions to exit certain markets and not enter others. Players have felt it through thinner fields and smaller tournament prizes on our site.”

“We want to do something about that so we’re moving to a different model with the aim of improving liquidity and player pools and bringing people back to the poker table,” he added.

More Liquidity, Bigger Fields

The full impact will only become clear once all three migrations are complete. Betfair moves first, with Paddy Power and Sky Poker following later in the year, so the immediate change to PokerStars’ traffic is likely to be limited.

Once the brands are operating together, however, PokerStars will have access to a much larger pool of Flutter customers without having to acquire those players through the main PokerStars brand.

That could be particularly useful for tournaments. A larger player pool should make it easier to fill fields, support stronger guarantees and provide more liquidity across cash games.

There is also a cost-saving element for Flutter, which can operate multiple brands from the same underlying poker platform rather than maintaining separate products and networks.

The company has described the changes as the beginning of a new operating model, leaving open the possibility of further consolidation in the future.

For PokerStars, the move will not immediately restore the traffic levels it enjoyed at its peak, but it gives the operator something it has been missing: a much larger pool of players from within its own parent company.

If that translates into bigger fields and stronger tournament guarantees, the PokerStars Network could become an important step in reversing some of the traffic decline the brand has experienced in recent years.