PokerStars has reviewed pricing policies and implemented an increase in rake on a number of games in its shared liquidity market effective March 28, 2016 but maintains it still has the “lowest overall pricing of any major online poker operator”.
Key pricing changes include:
– Rake increase in Spin & Go’s of 1 percent for buy-ins from $1 to $30, 2 percent in £3 buy-in’s.
– In multi-table tournaments, PokerStars will match the practices deployed in our closed liquidity markets where rebuys and add-ons incur fees similar to the original entry. These tournaments represent approximately 12 percent of the current main schedule.
– MTT hyper-turbo rake will be increased to 5 percent.
– Cap and percentage of rake will be increased in some no limit and pot limit ring games, mainly heads-up. Some rake caps will be lowered. Limit games will not be affected.
PokerStars expects the overall impact of the average rake increase to be 4 percent.
In a comparison with competitors, PokerStars said it had taken a sample of one million ring game hands played on PokerStars from January 8, 2016 to March 7, 2016 and applied the rake schedule of several online poker competitors to that selection of real data.
“The stakes where players benefit from the biggest cost savings (relative to competitors) at PokerStars are also the stakes that have the highest volume of hands played,” a press statement declared. “When the rake is weighted according to the different volumes of games played at different stakes, the current rake at PartyPoker is 7% more expensive than under the new PokerStars rake. The current rake at 888 Poker is 16% more expensive than under the new PokerStars rake. The current rake at iPoker is 19% more expensive than under the new PokerStars rake.”
In related news, Amaya Inc. gained accreditation for PokerStars from the Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) based on criteria involving operators governing content, quality and breadth of responsible gambling programmes delivered by providers.
“We commend Amaya on its leadership in committing to an independent assessment of the site’s responsible gambling program,” Jon Kelly, chief executive of the RGC said.