Following a review of the current business environment and the pricing policies employed across the competitive landscape for online gaming, PokerStars will change its pricing for a select number of games in its shared liquidity market, effective March 28, 2016.

Even after these changes, PokerStars will still have the lowest overall pricing (known as "rake") of any major online poker operator.

The pricing changes apply to certain games while others will remain unchanged. In Cash Games and Sit & Go competitions, PokerStars still has significantly lower rake than competitors.

Key pricing changes include:
• 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.

For details on specific changes for cash game rake, visit www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/rake/

For details on Spin & Go rake, visit www.pokerstars.com/poker/spin-and-go/

COMPARISON WITH COMPETITORS
PokerStars has taken a sample of one million ring game hands that were played on PokerStars from January 8, 2016 to March 7, 2016, and applied the rake schedule of several online poker operators to that selection of real data.

The above chart demonstrates the comparative level of rake that would be taken by PokerStars if we used the cash game rake structures of other sites (instead of our own).

The stakes where players benefit from the biggest cost savings (relative to competitors) at PokerStars are also the stakes that have the highest volume of hands played. When the rake is weighted according to the different volumes of games played at different stakes, the current rake at PartyPoker is 7% more expensive than under the new PokerStars rake. The current rake at 888 Poker is 16% more expensive than under the new PokerStars rake. The current rake at iPoker is 19% more expensive than under the new PokerStars rake.

Eric Hollreiser is Vice President of Corporate Communications for Amaya Inc. and PokerStars.