Daniel Negreanu leaves Team PokerStars

It has already been a big year for PokerStars Pros leaving the site, now perhaps the biggest name in poker will no longer be wearing the patch.

Daniel Negreanu has left Team PokerStars after almost 12 years as their lead ambassador.

I have an announcement I’d like to share with you all about my time with @pokerstars pic.twitter.com/qqY3ABPOTw

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) May 23, 2019

Negreanu joined PokerStars in June 2007, making him second only to Chris Moneymaker in terms of how long he has been an ambassador for the site.

It has already been a standout year for the ever changing landscape of poker sponsorship. Randy Lew, Barry Greenstein and Jake Cody all left PokerStars. As did Jaime Staples, Kevin Martin and Jeff Gross, who all joined partypoker. partypoker have formed a huge team of streamers of their own, meanwhile PokerStars have signed PSPC winner Ramon Colillas, Kalidou Sow and a team of lesser known up and coming streamers.

Negreanu, however, is without doubt the biggest name to leave PokerStars and arguably the biggest name in poker. Alongside Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey he is now one of the biggest free agents in the game. Whether he will announced as an ambassador for another site will be intriguing given the industry is heading more towards a highly targeted model of Twitch/YouTuber influencers (though Negreanu does have a Vlog and a podcast).

Given how outspoken Negreanu has been while still being a PokerStars Pro, it will be an interesting summer at the WSOP now he is not tied to a sponsor. He certainly will one to watch this series for numerous reasons including his feuds with a lot of players (notably Shaun Deeb right now), his selling action to his fans, his Vlogs and his attempt to win the WSOP POY by playing more low buy-in Hold’em events.

Should another major side sign KidPoker? Let us know in the comments.