Managing Editor
Flutter’s decision to reboot its U.S.PokerStars sites as part of FanDuel’s product has paid off. Whether you can consider is a success per se depends on your frame of reference. The one-time market leader is still a shadow of its former self, but it has bounced back into second place in the market share race, ahead of WSOP.
More importantly, it has mostly stopped the bleeding when it comes to its annual rate of growth. According to PokerScout’s proprietary estimates, FanDuel Poker’s total U.S. revenue in its first month of operation amounted to just over $2.7 million, almost the same as PokerStars made in April 2025. Although the annual growth rate remained slightly negative, just getting close to break-even is a tremendous improvement over the past two years, during which PokerStars’ growth rate was consistently in the double-digits below zero.
That recovery also gave a boost to the U.S. market as a whole. PokerStars’ implosion had kept total market growth in the red since last November, despite growth for market leader BetMGM and the rapid rise of challenger BetRivers. In April, the growth rate sprang not just into the black, but into double-digits. With an increase of 10.9% compared to April 2025, it’s back into the same range it was during last year’s honeymoon period following the addition of Pennsylvania to the multi-state liquidity pool.
On that same note, however, we may not see the same favorable trends continue in this month’s data. May 2025 was the first full month following Pennsylvania’s entry to the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement. That created an immediate 11.9% month-over-month revenue increase, and we’re now at the point that we’ll start seeing the flip side of that reflected in year-over-year comparisons.
Pennsylvania Still Snubs PokerStars Under Its New Name
Although PokerStars seems to be in better shape as FanDuel Poker, that improvement is not the same across all states.
In New Jersey, the new site is actually quite a bit better off than PokerStars was a year ago. FanDuel Poker NJ earned $769,600 in April 2026, compared to $645,544 in April 2025, an annual increase of 19.2% and 80% month-over-month.
On the other hand, it appears that PokerStars’ refusal to network Pennsylvania while waiting to make the change has had a lasting impact. The new FanDuel Poker was networked with New Jersey and Michigan from day one, and the Pennsylvania site saw nearly as much of a month-over-month jump as New Jersey. However, PokerStars’ losses in Pennsyvlania over the past year were much larger than in other states, and the bounce was not enough to overcome that.
Despite rising 72% month-over-month, FanDuel Poker PA’s $1.03 million in April revenue is still a 13.4% annual drop from April 2025. In other words, getting access to FanDuel’s player base helped the site in both states, but the belated networking of Pennsylvania does not appear to have produced the same gains as it did for the other operators who took advantage of the possibility immediately last year.
That leaves Michigan, which is a bit of an unknown. The Michigan Gaming Control Board reports only total iGaming revenue without breaking out poker. We can only guess at FanDuel Poker MI’s revenue based on FanDuel’s total and the share of it that came from poker in the other states. PokerScout’s formula for estimating this gives the Michigan site $895,694 in April, but that may be an underestimate. If the continued struggles in Pennsylvania are unique to that state, then applying only the New Jersey revenue ratio would provide a Michigan estimate of $986,773, enough to tip PokerStars into positive year-over-year growth.
