Managing Editor
Regulated U.S. online poker sites made 15.8% more revenue in January than in December, but a hot start to 2026 hasn’t changed the fact that those numbers are down year-over-year. The annual growth rate for January remained in the red at -4.6%, the third consecutive month of contraction for the market.
That’s disappointing, given that players have more options than ever. Pennsylvania joined the interstate liquidity pool last April, an event that, for a time, drove double-digit year-over-year gains. However, that honeymoon period came to an abrupt end in October.
A big month-over-month jump in January is normal for poker. Online gambling sites in general tend to do brisker business during the cold months. However, most poker formats require a bigger time commitment than casino games, so things don’t pick up until the winter holiday season is over. Still, the bump this year was particularly dramatic. Month-over-month gains for January 2025 amounted to 12.0%, so this year’s are nearly four percentage points greater. Even so, the year-over-year deficit had grown to 7.7% in December, so a better-than-average January wasn’t enough to push the market into the black.
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PokerStars’ Implosion Overshadows Other Positives
It’s no secret why the industry total is down. The one-time market leader, PokerStars, has neglected its product and its U.S. audience, and has suffered the consequences. It was the only operator not to network its Pennsylvania site with the others when that became possible last April, and subsequently cancelled its popular US Championship of Online Poker.
Even PokerStars saw gains in January, albeit only to the tune of 3.5%. Year-over-year, it is down 37%. Even though all the other operators (excluding DraftKings’ Electric Poker) have increased their revenue, the magnitude of PokerStars’ losses, combined with its formerly dominant position, keep the total market figures from reflecting those gains.
The primary beneficiaries have been BetMGM Poker and the upstart BetRivers Poker.
BetMGM was the biggest winner in January, up 23.5% and back over 40% market share. BetRivers gained 14.1% and held steady at just under 8% market share.
Unconfirmed rumors suggest that the reason PokerStars has seemingly abandoned its U.S. poker product is that its parent company, Flutter, intends to replace it with a new brand using the same technology.
Flutter acquired The Stars Group for roughly $6 billion in 2020, but its priority for the U.S. market has always been another subsidiary, FanDuel. If the rumors prove correct, PokerStars US will soon be phased out in favor of a new FanDuel Poker product.
