PokerStars 2026 Updates: FanDuel Merger, 25th Anniversary Series & SCOOP Highlights

Last Updated on June 22, 2026 by Bala Kumar

If you only follow one online poker story this year, make it PokerStars. The world’s most recognisable poker brand has spent 2026 doing three things at once,  rebuilding its US footprint under the FanDuel banner, throwing a $50 million birthday party for its 25th anniversary, and quietly rewriting how SCOOP fits into the global calendar. Together they signal a real shift in how online poker is going to look for the rest of the decade.

This guide pulls in confirmed numbers, real winner data, and a side-by-side comparison so you can decide what it all means for your game.

The PokerStars FanDuel Merger: What Actually Changed

For years, North American online poker has been stuck in a frustrating loop. PokerStars had the software and the brand recognition. FanDuel had the players, the marketing budget, and a sportsbook customers actually used every Sunday. Under Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of both, those two halves never quite touched. That changed this spring.

On April 1, 2026, FanDuel officially launched PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel in Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Ontario followed on May 7. For the first time, players in all three US states share a single liquidity pool, Pennsylvania had been sitting outside the Michigan-New Jersey network despite joining the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement in 2025.

•       Bigger fields, bigger prize pools. A combined MI-NJ-PA pool finally gives the US schedule the volume to support meaningful Sunday majors. Cash games and Sit & Gos fill faster at every stake.

•       One wallet, three products. Your poker bankroll now lives in the same account as your sports bets and casino balance. No more shuttling money between apps on NFL Sundays.

•       A new client, not a reskin. The legacy US software has been retired. The new app includes a built-in HUD and a cleaner interface. Old PokerStars US accounts remained accessible for balances and history until April 30, 2026.

•       Founders Table. Early adopters who signed up before launch reserved usernames and unlocked exclusive freerolls, avatars and throwables.

The strategic logic is simple: competitors like BetMGM and DraftKings already offer poker, casino and sportsbook in one place. This merger finally matches that one-stop structure in the US, while keeping the PokerStars name on the door because it still sells poker better than any other brand.

SCOOP 2026: A Shorter Calendar, A Bigger Story

The 2026 Spring Championship of Online Poker did something it had never done before — it ran in March. PokerStars shifted the festival out of its traditional May slot to clear the runway for the Anniversary Series, and the result was the most compressed SCOOP in years.

Across March 1-25, 2026, the series ran 400 tournaments across 136 events, with more than $45 million in guarantees and buy-ins from $5.50 to $15,000. Mid-series, the all-time SCOOP prize total crossed $1.5 billion, a milestone struck during a $109 Sunday Million PKO won by “nomalice.”

SCOOP 2026 vs SCOOP 2025: How They Compare

Metric	SCOOP 2025	SCOOP 2026	Change
Total events	379	400	+21
Total prize money	~$52.5M	~$40M	-$12.5M (-24%)
Total entries	Higher	~13% lower	Down
Calendar window	May-June	March	Shifted earlier
Biggest single win	$505,000	$397,025	-$108,000
Brazil titles	~105	105	Steady – still #1
UK titles	34 (#3)	59 (#2)	+74%

A few honest observations. The schedule grew, but the wallet didn’t — guarantees were noticeably lower across the board, and total prize money fell roughly 24% year-on-year. That isn’t a sign of decline; it is PokerStars protecting itself against overlay risk while spreading volume thinner across more events. For recreational players, that’s actually fine. For the high-stakes regs chasing $500K scores, it stung.

SCOOP 2026 Standout Moments

•       Christian “Eisenhower” Jeppsson took the $5,200 NLHE Main Event for $397,025, the largest score of the entire series and his third career SCOOP title.

•       Patrick Leonard became the all-time SCOOP leader with 15 titles after a double victory in the 8-Game events.

•       Albania’s “king153246” won 7 titles in a single SCOOP, more than any player in either 2025 or 2026.

•       The $109 Main Event Low drew 16,883 entries; the $1,050 Medium crushed its $2M guarantee with 2,673 entries.

The 25th Anniversary Series: A $50 Million Birthday Bash

If SCOOP felt slightly leaner, the Anniversary Series went the other way. PokerStars marked 25 years online, the company launched in September 2001,  with the loudest celebration of the year. The series ran May 10 to June 3, 2026, with 461 tournaments across 156 events and a guarantee total north of $50 million.

Buy-ins started at $5.50 and climbed to $15,000, with the three-tier Main Events kicking off on May 24. The festival doubled as the 15th anniversary of the Sunday Storm, the $11 PKO that has launched more “wait, I actually won what?” stories than any other online tournament in history. The Anniversary edition carried a $500,000 guarantee.

What made the series feel different from a standard COOP:

•       Real trophies for every event winner and leaderboard champion — not just a graphic on the lobby.

•       $100,000 in leaderboard cash spread across Low, Medium and High tiers, restarting weekly.

•       $650,000 in Lucky Dip tickets randomly awarded to every entry, worth between $5 and $5,200.

•       Revamped $530 Bronze Pass with 25% added value, redeemable for Anniversary ticket bundles.

•       Power Path entry from $0.50,  a working answer to the recurring “but my bankroll is tiny” objection.

Early winners set the tone fast. Leon “RUMUKULUS” Sturm took the $1,050 Super Tuesday for $40,321, and Finland’s Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden demolished the $5K High final table for $365,603,  mirroring his WCOOP heroics from last year.

How These Updates Affect Players Worldwide

Where you live changes which of these stories matters most. Here is a quick breakdown.

Region	Platform in 2026	What changed for you
Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa	PokerStars .com (global)	Nothing structural. SCOOP, Anniversary Series and WCOOP run as normal.
MI, NJ, PA (USA)	PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel	New app, new account, shared three-state liquidity, single wallet.
Ontario (Canada)	PokerStars on FanDuel	Merger completed May 7, 2026. Old balances had to be withdrawn by June 4.
Other US states (NV, CA, TX, FL)	Not currently available	Nevada is a WSOP monopoly. Other states still wait on regulation.
Rest of Canada (excl. Ontario)	PokerStars .com	Unaffected by the merger.

Quick Comparison: PokerStars vs the Other 2026 Giants

Feature	PokerStars (global)	GGPoker	partypoker / 888poker
Flagship 2026 series	25th Anniversary – $50M	WSOP Super Circuit – $180M	KO Games / Monthly Million
Lowest qualifier entry	$0.50 (Power Path)	$0.10 satellites	$1+ satellites
Live event tie-ins	EPT, BSOP, Irish Open	WSOP partnership	WPT (party), 888 Live
US footprint	MI, NJ, PA via FanDuel	Limited regulated US	NJ only (888)
Built-in HUD	Yes (new US client)	Yes	No

PokerStars isn’t the cheapest place to play, and it has never tried to be. What it offers is the deepest tournament ecosystem in the regulated world, the strongest brand prestige for a title, and a software experience that, even after 25 years,  still feels like the baseline every competitor is measured against.

Practical Tips for Players Heading into Late 2026

•       If you grind tournaments, map your volume around the dot-com calendar. WCOOP traditionally lands in September, and after a leaner SCOOP, PokerStars is highly likely to load value back into the autumn schedule.

•       If you’re in the US, get on the new FanDuel client early. Shared liquidity means the soft fields of the early launch period won’t last.

•       If you want a Main Event seat, use Power Path. Series records show repeated qualifiers coming in from $0.50 entries during both SCOOP and the Anniversary Series.

•       Avoid satelliting blind into $5,200 high rollers unless you have genuine deep-stack experience — the overlay you pay in skill at those tables is real.

The Bottom Line

2026 will be remembered as the year PokerStars stopped operating like two separate companies in North America and went all-in on a single Flutter ecosystem under the FanDuel name. It is also the year the brand reminded the rest of the industry why it still owns the conversation: $50 million for a birthday, $45 million in March, $1.5 billion of cumulative SCOOP prize money, and 25 years of momentum nobody else in online poker can match. According to our PokerStars Review 2026, the platform continues to set benchmarks among leading online poker apps with its tournaments, security, and player experience. If you’ve been waiting for a moment to come back to PokerStars, or to try it for the first time, this is the year the platform has done the most to earn that attention.

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