In its continuous efforts to maximize profits, the Amaya Inc. company and world’s biggest poker site, PokerStars has announced to increase rake in a select number of games. In its press release, PokerStars announced, “Following a review of the current business environment and the pricing policies employed across the competitive landscape for online gaming, PokerStars.com will change its pricing for a select number of games in its shared liquidity market, effective March 28, 2016.”
The rake hike will affect the following games:
- Spin & Go rake will be increased by one percentage point for buy-ins from $1 to $30 (two percentage points in $3 buy-in). $0.25, $60 and $100 buy-ins will not change.
- 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% of the current main schedule.
- MTT hyper-turbo rake will be increased to 5%.
- 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.
As a result of these changes, PokerStars expects that the overall impact will be a rake increase of 4%. PokerStars will continue to monitor its games and make regular adjustments to pricing whenever necessary.
Several poker players from around the world reacted to this announcement on Twitter. Many of them criticized the company’s decision which came in shadow of their New Jersey launch.
Yes Pokerstars, no one will notice if you announce rake changes at the same time PSNJ opens up
— Ápëx Pápi ♠️♥️♣️ (@Joeingram1) March 21, 2016
Another rake increase, awesome, thanks @PokerStars #WeKillPoker
— Daragh Davey (@DaraghDavey) March 21, 2016
@PokerStars Extra rake! Why not! Must be a fucking joke right!? Good job guys, keep killing the game! — Steven van Zadelhoff (@svzff) March 21, 2016
Kinda ironic that @PokerStars claimed they weren’t killing rebuys despite low rake and now kill them off by raking to death. — Darren (@Dr_Darren) March 22, 2016
In defending its decision to increase rake with an overall impact of 4%, PokerStars provided a chart showing data from games played between January 8 and March 7 of this year. Then, it compared the rake taken in these games to the rake that reportedly would have been taken by its three major competitors: partypoker, 888, and iPoker.