Rakeback wars
Both PokerStars and GGPoker have started to offer rakeback between 40-60%. Will this see a revival of the old days of high rakeback deals?
While 2024 has seen a terrible start for online poker generally, online grinders got a silver lining when PokerStars announced a new reward programme.
Most players will be able to get up to 40% rakeback, with high-volume players who can potentially reach the new statuses of 'Select' and 'Select Plus' which is worth as much as 60% rakeback.
At the highest level, a grinder could earn $60,000 in a year if they raked $100,000, playing Zoom or Spin & Go. The whole thing has shades of the iconic SuperNova Elite, which most players coveted and was controversially removed by PokerStars.
GGPoker announce 50% rakeback
GGPoker has responded swiftly, as they tend to do, and launched a new VIP status called 'Killer Whale' for a period of 100 days, starting from January 15 (with February 15 being the final day to opt-in). This is open to all GGPoker players and is worth 50% rakeback (up from 15% and 35% for most players).
The promotion is quite a smart way to keep PokerStars from stealing their players. The PokerStars rakeback is not guaranteed and for many players will have to be earned in either a quarter or a calendar year, whereas any GGPoker player can get started with 'Killer Whale'. The 100 days of 50% rakeback is enough to perhaps disincentivise players from moving to PokerStars afterwards, as they will be behind for the annual requirements.
What happens after those 100 days remains to be seen. If PokerStars are doing well, one would assume they will offer it for the rest of the year. If GGPoker is thriving, perhaps it will be withdrawn.
Brilliant timing for PokerStars
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Just like the December WSOP vs WPT war, this is great news for grinders, who once again have operators competing hard for their rake. However, we probably have to remember why high rakeback deals were pulled in the first place.
Big rakeback deals worked when we had a lot of new depositing online players. I guess you could argue as poker is booming post-pandemic we might be in that scenario right now. However, big rakeback deals also encouraged players to mass multi-table which made the games tougher. That will never be the issue it was, because PokerStars have a table cap of 4 cash game tables (rather than 24) now. So perhaps we are seeing a second version of the great rakeback experiment.
The timing could not be better for PokerStars, however, because GGPoker has just suffered a major PR setback. Stars may have angered the poker world after their pulling of SuperNova Elite but they are highly trusted in the realm of poker security. Announcing a 60% rakeback deal now really is striking while the iron is hot.
Will you be attempting Select or Select Plus? Let us know in the comments:
