PokerStars Addresses Recent Boycott

Players boycotted PokerStars for three days this month as a result of recent changes to its VIP program. Communications chief Eric Hollreiser made a statement about the staged boycott along with an announcement of four new $1 million free roll tournaments coming in 2016. Hollreiser recognizes that the VIP program decision could have been communicated differently. “In hindsight, we could have communicated to players more often that significant changes were coming in 2016. We could have been more explicit that these changes would be significant and would take effect in 2016. And we could have noted this on our VIP web pages that gave details of the program,” he said in a statement. “Although we did not publicize it at the time, we did recognize that players might not be expecting as severe a decrease in awards, so we provided a higher level of reward in 2016 than originally planned and delayed implementing the full decrease in rewards until 2017. This was explicitly in recognition that players were grinding in 2015 in order to reap the maximum benefit for 2016.” Hollreiser assured readers that the changes will be implemented saying, “We will not alter those plans. The current VIP program is no longer fit for its purpose. When combined with the increasing skill gap in the online poker market, the result is an increasingly poor experience for recreational and new players.” The statement also said that the boycott had “no significant impact” because of an increase in player activity because of a holiday promotion resulting in the “healthiest consecutive three-day ecosystem results of the year with steady net gaming revenue, even though our net-depositing players lost at a much lower rate than they have all year.” Additionally, poker pro Steve O'Dwyer, who previously won the $100,000 buy-in PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller event, followed it up by winning the Euro 50,000 buy-in European Poker Tour Prague Super High Roller competition. He and Canadian pro Sam Greenwood agreed to a 2-way chop before O'Dwyer won Euro 746,543 as the first place winner bringing his total live action winnings to date to nearly $12 million.