PokerStars Network: Is PokerStars Becoming the Next iPoker?
Updated: Oct 16
PokerStars has spent more than two decades building one of the most recognizable brands in online poker.
But one of its most important moves in 2026 has very little to do with a new tournament series, promotion or game format.
PokerStars is becoming a poker network.
The PokerStars Network (PSN) allows other operators and brands to use PokerStars technology and connect their players to shared poker liquidity.
This is no longer just an interesting possibility for the future. PokerStars now has a dedicated PokerStars Network B2B platform aimed at partners and operators, promoting shared liquidity, integration options and access to the PokerStars poker ecosystem.
The most visible recent example is the United Kingdom. Betfair Poker has moved away from the iPoker Network and joined the PokerStars ecosystem as PokerStars on Betfair. Paddy Power and Sky Poker are also expected to follow.
On the surface, this can look like Flutter simply reorganizing its poker brands. We think it could be considerably more important.
PokerStars is no longer competing only with other poker rooms for players. It is beginning to compete as poker infrastructure.
And that raises a much bigger question: Could the PokerStars Network eventually become a serious competitor to iPoker itself?
Table of Contents
🌐 What Is the PokerStars Network?
The important change is that PokerStars no longer has to be the only consumer brand through which a player enters the PokerStars poker ecosystem.
PokerStars Network is being positioned as an infrastructure product for operators. Its B2B proposition includes access to established poker liquidity, PokerStars technology, integration support and different branding options.
Historically, PokerStars was primarily a vertically integrated poker operator: it owned the brand, operated the software and attracted players directly into its own ecosystem. PSN allows another operator to become an additional gateway into that ecosystem.
The underlying idea is straightforward. Instead of every gambling brand attempting to create enough poker liquidity independently, multiple brands can connect players to a much larger existing poker environment.
PokerStars describes the strategy as liquidity-focused. And in online poker, liquidity is everything.
If you want a deeper explanation of the underlying model, read How Poker Networks Actually Work: Rooms, Networks, Skins & Clubs Explained.
🇬🇧 Why Betfair Matters
The UK provides one of the clearest examples of what this model can look like.
Betfair Poker previously operated on the iPoker Network. It has now moved into the PokerStars ecosystem through PokerStars on Betfair.
Players entering poker through Betfair therefore gain access to PokerStars technology and the broader PokerStars player environment rather than Betfair attempting to sustain an isolated poker ecosystem. Paddy Power and Sky Poker are expected to follow.
This matters because these are not newly created poker skins trying to establish themselves. They are major gambling brands within Flutter. Instead of maintaining fragmented poker products, Flutter can increasingly use PokerStars as the infrastructure underneath them.
Betfair has moved from one poker network to another poker ecosystem. That makes the comparison with iPoker impossible to ignore.
🔄 PokerStars Is Starting to Look Like a Traditional Poker Network
For years, the distinction was relatively simple. PokerStars was a poker room. iPoker was a poker network.
PokerStars controlled its consumer brand, software and player ecosystem. iPoker provided technology and liquidity that multiple operators and skins could access.
PokerStars Network begins to blur that distinction. PokerStars remains a major consumer-facing poker room, but PSN also allows it to provide infrastructure and liquidity to other brands.
PokerStars can therefore increasingly operate simultaneously as a poker room, a software platform, a liquidity provider and a B2B poker network.
That combination is particularly powerful because PokerStars already possesses the hardest thing for a poker network to create: players.
💧 The Real Product Is Liquidity
Online poker has a fundamental characteristic that separates it from most other gambling products. It needs other players.
A sportsbook can accept a wager without waiting for another customer to place an opposing bet. A slot machine works whether one person or one million people are playing. Poker does not.
A six-handed cash table cannot function properly without enough players. Tournament guarantees depend on entries. Less popular formats can disappear completely when the available player base becomes too fragmented.
That makes liquidity one of the most valuable assets in the entire online poker industry.
Software can be developed. A poker client can be licensed. Promotions can be copied. A large and functioning player pool is much harder to reproduce.
An established sportsbook or casino operator might have a huge customer base but still lack enough dedicated poker players to build a compelling standalone poker room. Connecting those customers to existing PokerStars liquidity solves much of that problem immediately.
The operator gains a poker product. PokerStars gains additional players. And existing players potentially gain more opponents.
♠️ Why This Matters for PLO and Smaller Games
Additional liquidity does not affect every poker format equally. No-Limit Hold'em usually generates games even in relatively small ecosystems. Other formats are much more sensitive to player numbers.
That includes PLO, higher-stakes cash games, mixed games, less common tournament formats and games running outside peak hours.
This is particularly relevant to The Poker Broker because we regularly analyze PLO, PLO5 and PLO6 traffic across different poker rooms and networks.
An additional group of players entering a network may make little visible difference to an already busy NL25 pool. The same number of players can be the difference between a PLO game running regularly and not running at all.
One of the more interesting things to watch will be whether additional brands create deeper liquidity across games that traditionally struggle to maintain consistent action.
Our 100,000-hand KKPoker Network test is one example of how we evaluate a network through actual games and traffic rather than branding alone.
⚔️ PokerStars Network vs iPoker
The obvious comparison is now iPoker. The two ecosystems are not identical, and describing PokerStars Network simply as another version of iPoker would be an oversimplification.
But strategically, they are beginning to compete on some of the same ground.
The question is no longer only: Which poker room can attract more players? It can increasingly become: Which poker network can attract more operators and aggregate more liquidity?
Betfair moving away from iPoker and into the PokerStars ecosystem makes that question especially relevant.
PokerStars also enters this competition from an unusual position. A traditional poker network relies heavily on its operators and skins to bring customers into the shared ecosystem. PokerStars already has a huge poker brand and an established player pool of its own.
PSN can potentially add partner traffic on top of an ecosystem that already exists at scale. That is a significant advantage.
🏢 PokerStars Is Already Targeting Operators
This is the biggest reason our view of PokerStars Network has changed.
The B2B element is not merely theoretical. PokerStars now actively presents PSN as a product for partners and operators.
Its network proposition promotes access to established liquidity, integration capabilities and branding options, including white-label possibilities.
The strategic question is no longer: Could PokerStars one day become a B2B poker provider? It already is becoming one.
The more important question is: How far does PokerStars intend to take it? Using PSN across Flutter-owned brands is one thing. Attracting unrelated third-party operators would be something much bigger.
🚪 What Happens If More Operators Join?
Consider the position of a regulated gambling operator that already has sportsbook and casino customers but wants to add poker.
Building a poker client is possible. Building a player pool is much harder.
The operator needs enough simultaneous players to populate cash tables, tournaments and multiple stakes around the clock. Historically, joining an established poker network has been one solution. PokerStars Network introduces another potential route.
An operator can potentially combine its existing customer acquisition with PokerStars technology and liquidity rather than attempting to build an entire poker ecosystem from zero.
More operators can bring more players. More players improve liquidity. Better liquidity makes the network more attractive to additional operators. And additional operators bring even more players.
Poker networks have always benefited from this effect. The difference is that PokerStars begins the process with one of online poker's largest existing ecosystems already in place.
If PSN succeeds in attracting operators beyond Flutter's own portfolio, that is when the competitive landscape becomes particularly interesting.
⚠️ The Other Side of Consolidation
For players, more liquidity can be extremely valuable. More tables run. Tournament fields become larger. Less popular formats become more sustainable. Games run across more hours of the day.
But consolidation also deserves scrutiny.
If the same ecosystem increasingly provides the software, player pool and network infrastructure used by multiple brands, more of the online poker market becomes dependent on decisions made by that ecosystem.
Those decisions can affect rake, rewards, game formats, software policies, third-party tools and game-integrity enforcement.
A larger network can produce healthier games while simultaneously concentrating more influence in the hands of the network operator. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
The important question is whether greater scale produces better games and better conditions for the players generating that liquidity.
For context on why network economics matter so much to players, see our explanation of dealt vs contributed rakeback.
🔮 What Players Should Watch Next
Betfair joining the PokerStars ecosystem is significant. Paddy Power and Sky Poker should provide further evidence of how aggressively Flutter intends to consolidate poker liquidity around PokerStars.
But there is another development we consider even more important: watch who joins next.
If PSN remains primarily an infrastructure solution for Flutter-owned gambling brands, its strategic impact will still be meaningful. If unrelated operators begin choosing PokerStars Network as their poker provider, the implications become considerably larger.
At that point, PokerStars would be competing much more directly for the type of B2B business traditionally associated with networks such as iPoker.
We would also watch several practical indicators: Does overall PokerStars traffic increase? Do PLO and less common games become more active? Do tournament fields grow? Do different brands offer different rewards or promotions while sharing liquidity? How much control do individual operators retain? And does another established poker operator choose PSN instead of an existing competing network?
Those developments will tell us far more about the future of PokerStars Network than the name itself.
🏁 Final Thoughts
For years, PokerStars was easy to categorize. It was the poker room.
That description is becoming incomplete. PokerStars Network gives the company another role: providing poker infrastructure, technology and liquidity to other operators.
Betfair's move away from iPoker is particularly symbolic because it shows that infrastructure being used as an alternative to an established poker-network model. Paddy Power and Sky Poker should expand the experiment further.
For players, the immediate attraction is straightforward: more liquidity concentrated into a larger ecosystem can mean more games, larger fields and better availability across less popular formats.
For the industry, the implications could be considerably bigger. PokerStars no longer needs to compete only for individual poker players. Through PSN, it can also compete for the operators that bring those players.
If the network eventually expands significantly beyond Flutter's own brands, iPoker and other B2B poker providers could find themselves facing a competitor with something extraordinarily difficult to replicate: PokerStars' existing liquidity.
That is why we believe PokerStars Network is one of the most interesting structural developments in online poker in 2026.
The question is no longer whether PokerStars can become a poker network. It already is one. The question now is how big that network can become.
Want to discuss PokerStars Network, rakeback deals or the best poker rooms for your games? Contact The Poker Broker on Telegram.
