PokerStars and PartyPoker Celebrate 25 Years of Online Poker in 2026

Between them, they have produced the biggest tournaments ever played, the most famous moment in poker history, billion-dollar acquisitions, regulatory earthquakes, and an industry that now reaches hundreds of millions of players worldwide.

Not bad for a couple of startups nobody saw coming.

PartyPoker opened its virtual doors in October 2001, the creation of entrepreneur Anurag Dikshit alongside Ruth Parasol and Vikrant Bhargava. They had spent years building online casino software before pivoting to poker at exactly the right moment. PokerStars followed weeks later on December 12, 2001, founded by Isai and Mark Scheinberg out of Costa Rica under the Rational Enterprises banner.

Both platforms saw the same opportunity. Neither could have predicted just how large that opportunity would become.

The anniversary story cannot be told without 2003. When Tennessee accountant Chris Moneymaker qualified for the $10,000 WSOP Main Event via an $86 satellite on PokerStars and went on to win $2,500,000 on ESPN, the poker world was never the same. Millions of casual players saw themselves in Moneymaker's journey and rushed to the platforms that could give them the same shot. PartyPoker hit 70,000 simultaneous players and commanded 80% of the global market. PokerStars had produced the most important player in poker history. Both won.

The 25-year journey has been anything but smooth. The 2006 UIGEA legislation forced PartyPoker out of the United States overnight, handing PokerStars a market lead it has never surrendered. Black Friday in April 2011 brought federal indictments, frozen accounts, and the end of the open American online poker era. PokerStars absorbed the blow, acquired the collapsed Full Tilt Poker brand in 2012, and emerged as the undisputed global leader.

The corporate chapters have been equally dramatic. In 2014, PokerStars sold to Canadian company Amaya Gaming for $4.9 billion, making it one of the most significant deals in gambling history. 

GVC Holdings acquired PartyPoker in 2016 and immediately unleashed an ambition the industry underestimated. The 2018 MILLIONS Online delivered a $21,835,000 prize pool, the largest in online poker history, validating a $20 million guarantee many believed was reckless. 

Amaya became The Stars Group, which merged with Flutter Entertainment in 2020, making PokerStars a piece of the world's largest online gaming company. GVC became Entain, PartyPoker's current corporate home.

In 2026, both platforms are active and evolving. PokerStars enters its 25th year as the world's dominant poker operator, running a $50 million guaranteed Anniversary Series through June and an EPT calendar that just delivered two record-breaking high rollers at Monte Carlo. 

PartyPoker, under Entain, has traded the Super High Roller arms race for something more sustainable: a grassroots live tour now reaching Spain, Ireland, and the UK, with satellite routes from $0.01 in rake.

PokerStars is in middle of a record-breaking EPT Monte Carlo, EPT Barcelona in August, a confirmed return of EPT Prague in December, and SCOOP on the online horizon with north of $85 million in expected guarantees. 

PartyPoker heads to Madrid next, May 11 to 17 at Casino Gran Via, followed by Manchester later in the season, with further international stops still to be announced.

Twenty-five years. Two platforms. One industry that neither could have built alone. The next chapter is already being written.