More than 2,000 online poker players from across the globe voiced their displeasure on online poker forums earlier this month over the proposed changes that PokerStars was making to its VIP rewards program.
These online poker players decided to join forces and protest by organizing a strike for 3 days and not playing online poker. These players decided to send a message to the online poker giant and convey that they were not only unhappy about these proposed changes but also had the ability to join forces and stand as one.
Last month Daniel Negreanu joined Joe Ingram on youtube to discuss the recent Pokerstars VIP Changes
Unfortunately, it does not appear that their three day strike has had a lot of impact on PokerStars traffic stats.
PokerStars has the biggest database of online poker players in the world and this is one of the reasons why the strike did not have much of an impact. Amaya Inc, the parent company that owns PokerStars also stated that traffic has improved in December because PokerStars has launched a special Christmas promotion and a number of online poker players are singing up to see if they get lucky in December.
Eric Hollreiser, Vice President Corporate Communications for Amaya for the first time acknowledged the three day strike in a blog post on the PokerStars website. Hollreiser admitted that 2015 was a tough year for the company’s online poker players as they have had to deal with a number of policy changes. Hollreiser once again asked players to be patient as he said they changes will benefit them in the long run. He also stated that while the strike did not have a negative impact for PokerStars, the company was always looking at addressing player concerns and would continue to strive to ensure that its players have a great experience on the PokerStars website.
Hollreiser also admitted that PokerStars should have communicated these changes earlier and in a more professional manner and put it down to a learning experience. Many of the online poker players who participated in the strike, were unhappy with Hollreiser’s post and once again used the forums to protest.
PokerStars ambassador Daniel Negreanu also took responsibility for the poor communication in a blog post. His post read
I want to take full responsibility for my role in the communications breakdown between PokerStars and the players. I didn’t write the messaging, but there was more I could have done to help avoid this that I failed to do. I had the opportunity to ask the right questions in October 2014 about when these changes would take effect, but I failed to do that
