PokerStars is making one of its biggest changes in the UK for years, with Betfair customers gaining access to PokerStars poker from August 13. Paddy Power and Sky Poker are set to follow as Flutter attempts to bring its poker players together under a new shared network.
The familiar PokerStars name is about to appear somewhere UK poker players may not have expected to see it: Betfair.
From August 13, 2026, Betfair customers will be able to access PokerStars through a new co-branded “PokerStars on Betfair” offering. The move is the first major UK step in Flutter Entertainment’s wider plan to build what it calls the PokerStars Network (PSN).
And Betfair is only the beginning.
Flutter also plans to introduce PokerStars poker through Paddy Power and Sky Poker later in 2026, potentially bringing players from several of the UK’s biggest gambling brands into connected PokerStars player pools.
For online poker players, that last part is what really matters.
What Is PokerStars on Betfair?
PokerStars on Betfair will allow Betfair account holders to access games hosted through the PokerStars Network.
Rather than building an entirely separate poker ecosystem for Betfair, Flutter is effectively using PokerStars as the poker engine behind the offering.
The idea is simple: instead of spreading poker customers across numerous Flutter-owned brands and smaller pools, connect more of them through PokerStars.
PokerStars says the resulting network should help produce fuller tables, bigger tournament fields and larger prize pools.
Why Is PokerStars Making the Change?
The explanation from PokerStars is unusually candid.
PokerStars Chief Commercial Officer Mike Woodbridge acknowledged that the online poker environment has become more difficult in recent years as different regulatory systems have increasingly fragmented the game.
That fragmentation matters enormously in poker.
A sportsbook can still offer a football market with relatively few customers. Online poker needs opponents. When liquidity falls, cash-game choices become thinner and tournaments can struggle to generate the fields and prize pools that attract players in the first place.
Woodbridge said players have experienced the consequences through “thinner fields and smaller tournament prizes”, something PokerStars hopes its network strategy can address.
Flutter Is Turning PokerStars Into a Network
The bigger story may therefore be less about Betfair itself and more about what Flutter intends PokerStars to become.
Flutter owns a huge collection of gambling brands, including PokerStars, Betfair, Paddy Power and Sky Betting & Gaming.
Instead of requiring PokerStars to acquire every poker customer directly under its own standalone brand, the new strategy allows other Flutter businesses to feed players into a shared poker ecosystem.
The UK isn’t the first market where Flutter has experimented with this approach.
PokerStars says migrations involving FanDuel in the United States and Sisal and SNAI in Italy have already taken place. The UK now becomes another important test of the strategy.
Paddy Power and Sky Poker Are Next
This is where things become particularly interesting for the UK market.
PokerStars says Paddy Power and Sky Poker will also host its poker product later this year.
Sky Poker has its own long history and identity within British online poker, while Paddy Power gives Flutter another enormous consumer brand through which it can introduce players to PokerStars.
If those customers ultimately contribute to shared liquidity, the cumulative effect could be considerably more important than the Betfair launch alone.
Betfair Managing Director Kim Daly described the initial integration as bringing together two major brands with a shared focus on innovation.
For poker players, however, the success of the project will probably be judged by something much simpler: are there more games running and more money in the tournaments?
What Happens to Existing PokerStars UK Players?
There is no immediate action required for existing PokerStars players.
PokerStars says UK customers can continue playing normally for now and that anyone affected by changes to the way they access the platform will be contacted directly with instructions.
Player balances will remain accessible and segregated, according to PokerStars.
The company also says the familiar PokerStars poker experience will continue, although the route players use to access it may change as the UK transition progresses.
One important detail is that PokerStars says existing PokerStars UK players will not be able to simply open new Betfair accounts as part of the initial process. Players should therefore wait for individual instructions rather than attempting to migrate themselves.
Will Sunday Million, WCOOP and SCOOP Continue?
For tournament players, PokerStars has also moved quickly to reassure customers about its biggest events.
The operator says longstanding tournaments including the Sunday Million and Sunday Storm, together with major series such as WCOOP and SCOOP, are intended to continue.
In fact, larger tournament fields are one of the main arguments behind the entire PokerStars Network strategy.
More players entering the same ecosystem should, in theory, make it easier to sustain ambitious guarantees and offer a wider tournament schedule.
Whether that happens in practice will become clearer once Betfair, Paddy Power and Sky Poker customers are flowing through the system.
Is This the Future of PokerStars?
That may be the most interesting question raised by the announcement.
For much of online poker’s history, PokerStars has operated primarily as a destination. Players wanting PokerStars games went directly to PokerStars.
The PokerStars Network changes that relationship.
Under the new model, a player could effectively become a PokerStars player while entering through another Flutter brand.
That gives Flutter the ability to use the enormous customer bases of Betfair, Paddy Power and its other businesses to strengthen poker liquidity without requiring every customer to adopt PokerStars as their primary gambling account.
It also potentially gives PokerStars something online poker desperately needs: scale.
Bigger Player Pools Could Be the Real Prize
The UK launch will be worth watching closely.
PokerStars remains one of online poker’s biggest names, but even the largest operators face the same fundamental problem when markets become increasingly fragmented by regulation.
Poker cannot manufacture liquidity.
It needs players.
By connecting customers from several Flutter brands through the PokerStars Network, the company is betting that consolidation can produce healthier cash games, larger tournaments and ultimately a stronger poker ecosystem.
PokerStars on Betfair launches on August 13, with Paddy Power and Sky Poker expected to join the strategy later in 2026.
For UK players, the logos they use to reach the tables may be changing. The real test will be whether there are noticeably more players waiting when they get there.
