New WPT Global Ambassador

[Jyco]

I think PokerStars is making the mistake of believing it’s still the giant it was 10 years ago. In reality, both player traffic and guaranteed prize pools have been declining. On top of that, they’ve often pushed strict exclusivity requirements for streamers, which seems to have burned out many of the biggest poker content creators.

Because of that, a lot of streamers and ambassadors are moving to platforms with more growth and ambition, like GGPoker, or to newer projects that are investing heavily in their ecosystem, such as WPT Global and Gold. From that perspective, WPT Global signing new ambassadors makes a lot of sense.

 

[fa1920]

Seeing some people in the thread asking if PokerStars is going bankrupt shows a lack of understanding of how corporate online gambling works. PS is owned by Flutter Entertainment, a massive publicly traded conglomerate. They aren't running out of money, they are just ruthlessly optimizing their profit margins.

KrazyKoo, rhoudini and acidburnfx pretty much nailed the reality of the situation. The ideological shift and the death of the 'community vibe' started years ago when they killed Supernova Elite. What we are seeing now with the ambassador mass exodus—Lex, Fintan, Wistern, Papo MC, and the rest—is just the final stage of that transition.

PokerStars no longer cares about growing a hardcore poker ecosystem. Their current business model relies heavily on cross-selling recreational players into high-margin casino games and sports betting. Paying massive retainer contracts to a large roster of Twitch streamers simply doesn't generate the ROI it used to, especially when they are bogged down by strict compliance in shrinking, heavily regulated markets.

Meanwhile, as Goggelheimer pointed out, competitors like GG and WPT Global are in an aggressive user-acquisition phase. Operating largely in gray markets gives them the liquidity and margins to throw infinite money at marketing. Offering near 100% rakeback deals and built-in action selling to streamers is a strategy to buy market share. A heavily regulated giant like Stars has no financial incentive to try and match those zero-variance deals.

Letting go of staple names isn't a sudden crisis, it is just a calculated corporate pivot. They are perfectly fine letting the competition fight over the traditional poker audience while they milk their remaining database

 

[martinlgs]

Everyone's leaving PokerStars, if I win a tournament and they offer me a second-tier spokesperson role at PokerStars I'd gladly accept 🤣🤪😅

 

[martinlgs]

Beyond all this, there are also the software and applications. Today, PokerStars remains the leader; I've confirmed this in the last two weeks since my return. It's followed by GGPoker, but I read and, despite some lag, WPT and ACR are leaving much to be desired, with many problems.
♥️♠️♦️♣️♥️

 

[fundiver199]

Personally I have never understood, why people even care about these poker ambassadors, or which site they work for. Like... why on earth does this even matter? The only relevance, it has, is, that we need to remember, that when for instance Daniel Negreanu say something, he is representing the interests of GG Poker, because they are the ones paying him. So he is essentially a GG Poker shill and not some "poker community spokesperson", as many erroneously see him.

 

[Sunz of Beaches]

Personally I have never understood, why people even care about these poker ambassadors, or which site they work for. Like... why on earth does this even matter? The only relevance, it has, is, that we need to remember, that when for instance Daniel Negreanu say something, he is representing the interests of GG Poker, because they are the ones paying him. So he is essentially a GG Poker shill and not some "poker community spokesperson", as many erroneously see him.

Yeah and i mean in Negreanus case u cant take anything serious anymore that comes from his mouth since the whole "more rake is better" debacle. Before that he was indeed some halfway "poker community spokesperson" at Stars. Remember him actively discussing issues and in some cases even indirectly helping players.

 

[fundiver199]

Yeah and i mean in Negreanus case u cant take anything serious anymore that comes from his mouth since the whole "more rake is better" debacle.

Exactly. And as a GG Poker shill he has made equally idiotic statements about their ridiculous "security and ecology agreement", which allow them to randomly ban players for table selection. According to Negreanu this is a great thing, just as more rake is better (for poker site owners).

 

[dariana Orasma]

It's disturbing to think about what's happening behind the scenes at the world's biggest poker room, and as we've seen, it affects me. I believe bad decisions and platform flaws are contributing to this. I hope they can overcome these issues. I really like the PokerStars platform, but lately it hasn't stopped making progress.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Personally I have never understood, why people even care about these poker ambassadors, or which site they work for. Like... why on earth does this even matter? The only relevance, it has, is, that we need to remember, that when for instance Daniel Negreanu say something, he is representing the interests of GG Poker, because they are the ones paying him. So he is essentially a GG Poker shill and not some "poker community spokesperson", as many erroneously see him.

After all, Daniel's most famous comment of all time was 'More rake is good!' How anyone could believe he was in it for the community after that b.s. is beyond me... but somehow he still has his followers who think he's the best! And if Daniel's involved with the company they must be trusted! He's such an honest, caring guy.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Yeah and i mean in Negreanus case u cant take anything serious anymore that comes from his mouth since the whole "more rake is better" debacle. Before that he was indeed some halfway "poker community spokesperson" at Stars. Remember him actively discussing issues and in some cases even indirectly helping players.

guessing I should've read the rest of the thread before responding

 

[Poker Orifice]

It's disturbing to think about what's happening behind the scenes at the world's biggest poker room, and as we've seen, it affects me. I believe bad decisions and platform flaws are contributing to this. I hope they can overcome these issues. I really like the PokerStars platform, but lately it hasn't stopped making progress.

SCOOP series starts in 2weeks. Numbers will be up on Stars!

 

[fundiver199]

SCOOP series starts in 2weeks. Numbers will be up on Stars!

That is true. Also I dont really understand, why people care so much about "numbers". As long as I can get the action, I want, why would I even care, how many people are playing on a certain site? As I have said before, Stars pretty much ruined their STT SnGs with rake hikes back in 2024. But GG Poker never had them in the first place, 888 removed them a few years back, and on ACR Poker less and less people play them. So this is not unique to PokerStars, and if you are playing MTT SnGs, MTTs or cash games, there is still enough action on PokerStars pretty much around the clock.

If people think, they can find better deals or softer games elsewhere, thats fine and fair. As customers we are always allowed to shop around. This is the reason, why I also sometimes play on ACR Poker. I am certainly getting a better deal there, especially from the SnG leaderboard. But games are not softer, there is much less action, withdrawals are more expensive, and the software is far worse. So if I had to choose only one of those sites, it would definitely be PokerStars.

888 Poker does not have enough action for my needs. WPT Global is not available in Sweden, so even if I wanted to, I could not play there. And finally GG Poker operate illegally here, which mean expensive withdrawals via e-Vallet as on ACR Poker, and they dont have any SnGs other than the gambling oriented Battle Royal. I also cant use my tracker to collect my hands, or use sharkscope to keep track of my results. So while GG Poker do have lower MTT rake and promotions, I dont see any major reason to move from PokerStars to GG Poker.