Trust Score 82/100 · Tier 1
82/100Tier 16 componentsOwned by Flutter Entertainment, PokerStars runs as a sportsbook tracked in the SharkBetting Atlas.
Read whyPokerStars
Is it safe to bet with? Licence, owner and complaint record, verified 2026
Owned by Flutter Entertainment, PokerStars runs as a sportsbook tracked in the SharkBetting Atlas.
- ACTIVE LICENCES
- 14
- PLAYER REVIEWS
- 336k
Across 14 jurisdictions
Review platforms + apps
Our independent 0-100 check, computed from public records. Not paid for, not editable by operators.
Quick scan
- LicenseTier 1 UK Gambling Commission
- EnforcementNo fines
- AppsAndroid only
- Markets1 countries
Author and sources
PokerStars at a glance
At a glance
PokerStars sits in the top 1% of bookmakers we track and earns a Tier-1 licensing posture. The trust score and tier shown in the header above are broken down by 6 weighted components in the score panel below.
What's behind the 82/100
6 weighted checks, total 100. Each bar shows the score, weight, and what it means.
What this score means: Active licences in tier-1 jurisdictions provide strong consumer protection and dispute-resolution channels.
Evidence: Tier-1: UK Gambling Commission
What this score means: Ownership traces to a publicly-known parent group with documented filings.
Evidence: SEC-filed public parent: flutter-entertainment
What this score means: Multiple security signals failing. Mozilla Observatory grade poor or critical CVEs nearby.
Context: A technical measure of HTTP-header hardening and DNS hygiene, not evidence of a breach or unsafe funds.
Evidence: Mozilla Observatory: F
What this score means: Mixed review signals. Some platforms positive, others negative or sparse.
Evidence: Dispute mediation: 7.0/10
What this score means: No fraud-intel hits, no AML enforcement actions, no KEV CVEs on infrastructure.
Evidence: No threat-intel hits
What this score means: Domain age, hosting tier, and CDN posture indicate a stable long-running operation.
Evidence: Domain age: 25y
PokerStars overview
Owned by Flutter Entertainment, PokerStars runs as a sportsbook tracked in the SharkBetting Atlas. Its ultimate parent is publicly traded, so a regulated, accountable company stands behind the brand rather than an anonymous holding company. It holds 14 active licences, including ones from UKGC, ADM, and Spelinspektionen. Public hosting infrastructure is classified as tier-1 hosting (Cloudflare, Inc.).
Its SharkBetting Trust Score v2 sits at 82 out of 100 (high confidence, strong band). By our methodology that places it among the better-documented operators we track.
How PokerStars ended up under Flutter, via two prior owners
PokerStars was founded in 2001 by Isai Scheinberg and his son Mark, originally licensed in Costa Rica before moving to the Isle of Man as the brand scaled. The Scheinberg family sold the business to Amaya Gaming in 2014 for approximately USD 4.9 billion in the largest deal ever in regulated online gambling at the time. Amaya rebranded to The Stars Group in 2017 and was itself acquired by Flutter Entertainment in 2020 in an all-share merger that put PokerStars under the same parent as Paddy Power, Betfair and (after 2025) Unibet.
For a player, the read on this ownership history is double-sided. Flutter is a London-listed FTSE 100 group with mandatory SEC, FCA and ASX disclosure obligations, segregated client funds and a public regulatory record, meaningful financial-stability and integrity guarantees that most poker rooms cannot match. The flip side: Flutter's responsible-gambling baseline is more interventionist than Stars Group's was, and players accustomed to high-velocity rake-back and aggressive bonus terms have seen those tighten since 2021.
What PokerStars' scale means for online poker players
PokerStars is the largest online poker brand in the world by player traffic, and that scale is the single most important thing about it for a poker player, because online poker is fundamentally a liquidity business.
The value of a poker room is the number of players at the tables: more players means more games running at more stakes, fuller tournament fields and bigger guaranteed prize pools. PokerStars' traffic lead is what lets it offer game availability and tournament series that smaller rooms cannot match, which is the practical reason it remains the default room for many players. It operates within Flutter Entertainment, a publicly listed parent, and runs under state-licensed frameworks in regulated US markets such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan alongside its international business; the licence covering your jurisdiction is what governs your account, while the global brand provides the liquidity.
Weight the Trust Score yourself
Drag the sliders to match your own priorities. PokerStars’s score recomputes live with the published weighting rules (missing data counts as a conservative prior at half weight). See the full methodology for red-flag and coverage caps.
Your weighted score
82
Atlas default
82
Delta
-0.0
Licensing & regulatory footprint
Country access
Hover or tap a region for the country list.
Europe0 accepted, 0 blocked
Americas1 accepted, 0 blocked
Asia0 accepted, 0 blocked
Africa0 accepted, 0 blocked
Oceania0 accepted, 0 blocked
Activity timeline
Atlas tracked 4 timeline sources for this brand: licence registers, UKGC enforcement sitemap, certificate transparency, atlas verification. 1 returned signal so far. Atlas first observed this brand on 2026-04-19.Latest event: Atlas last verified on 2026-04-19.
Public reviews
What to expect
Identity checks
Standard: ID on first withdrawal
A general expectation for this brand type, not an individually verified KYC audit. Check the operator’s own terms before depositing.
Mobile apps
How we know: Apple App Store + Google Play Store metadata, atlas brand catalogue. Last checked 2026-04-19.
Not convinced by PokerStars?
These brands currently outscore PokerStars in the Atlas ranking. Same scoring code, no placement fees; check that each holds a licence in your country before switching.
Frequently asked questions
Is PokerStars safe?
PokerStars has a Trust Score of 82/100 with high data confidence. It rates well on independent signals: licensing 94/100, reviews 55/100, corporate 95/100, security 15/100. No active red flags are recorded against the brand.
Who owns PokerStars?
PokerStars is part of the SEC-listed group flutter-entertainment (ticker FLUT), which discloses audited financials and ownership in public filings. The same operator family also runs adjarabet, betfair-exchange, betfair-sportsbook, fanduel and 6 other brands. Verified ownership matters because the parent company holds the regulatory licence, custody of player funds, and final responsibility for dispute resolution; corporate transparency is one of six components in the Trust Score v2 rubric.
Is PokerStars licensed?
PokerStars appears in regulator registers classified by the Trust Score v2 scorer as MGA (tier-1), UKGC (tier-1). The licensing component scores 94/100 in Trust Score v2. Tier-1 status means strict KYC, AML, segregated player funds, and mandatory dispute resolution. Tier-2 covers Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Alderney, Kahnawake, and KSA-NL. Tier-3 covers Curacao-style light-touch frameworks.
Does PokerStars have a mobile app?
PokerStars ships a native Android app verified against the Google Play listing. On Google Play (package com.pyrsoftware.pokerstars.net), the app rates 2.73/5 across 336,371 user reviews. Store ratings reflect user satisfaction with the app itself, not the underlying betting product, and can drift after major updates.
What do third-party review platforms say about PokerStars?
PokerStars appears on multiple independent review aggregators that measure different aspects of player experience. A third-party dispute-mediation service, which mediates player complaints with operators, scores 7/10. Open consumer-review platforms reflect sentiment from any consumer who chooses to post; dispute-mediation services reflect how an operator behaves when disputes are escalated, so the two metrics measure different things.
Where is PokerStars available?
PokerStars accepts players from 1 jurisdiction per atlas data, including Brazil. Availability lists are derived from public terms-of-service pages and licence registers; geofencing rules can be tighter than what is publicly stated, and accounts opened from restricted IPs are usually voided. Always verify your specific country on the official site before depositing.
What are alternatives to PokerStars?
Alternatives in the same operator family (parent group: flutter-group) include adjarabet, betfair-exchange, betfair-sportsbook, fanduel, junglee-games and 5 other branded clones. Same-family sites typically share the platform, licensing posture, payment rails, and corporate ownership, so a complaint pattern, regulator action, or AML failure at one site frequently recurs across siblings. Compare independent Trust Scores side by side before switching, and check whether the alternative holds the same licences in your country.
Is PokerStars's site secure?
PokerStars scores 15/100 on the Trust Score v2 security component, indicating noticeable hardening gaps. Signals include: Mozilla Observatory grade F; HSTS enabled; hosted on tier-1 infrastructure (Cloudflare, Inc.). The security component blends HTTP-header hardening (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options), TLS configuration, DNS hygiene (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), CDN/WAF presence, and hosting reputation; it does not assess the operator's internal security or breach history.
Compare PokerStars to alternatives
Pick up to two other atlas brands and see the verifiable stats side-by-side.
| Metric | This brand PokerStars | Alternative 1 Not selected | Alternative 2 Not selected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust Score | 82/100 | ||
| Tier | Tier 1 | ||
| Active licences | 14 | ||
| Player reviews | 336k | ||
| Top regulator | UK Gambling Commission | ||
| Regulator actions | None on file |
Brands listed by Trust Score. Comparison uses the same data Atlas publishes on each brand’s own page.
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Author and sources
Sources (6)
Citations backing every factual claim in this PokerStars profile, grouped by category. Atlas verifies each source on the date shown. External links open in a new tab.
Regulator records (2)
- [1]PokerStars licence record (no. 39108) (UK Gambling Commission)
- [4]PokerStars licence record (Spelinspektionen)
Operator pages (1)
- [6]Domain registration record for pokerstars.com (RDAP (registry data))
Other (3)
- [2]PokerStars licence record (no. GAD-16023) (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli)
- [3]PokerStars licence record (Gemeinsame Gluecksspielbehoerde der Laender)
- [5]Web-security scan of pokerstars.com (grade F) (Mozilla HTTP Observatory)Accessed
Trust score computed from 6 weighted components (licensing, corporate, security, reviews, threat intel, operational). License data verified against public authority records. Last verified 53 days ago. Sources cited: 6.
Last updated: 19 Apr 2026
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