The race to be the first to launch interstate poker in Michigan proved to be an important one.
PokerStars managed to win that race and has seen the benefits in the following months.
Launching on Jan. 1 of 2023, the addition has led to a steady boost in revenue for the online casino in Michigan.
Can we expect the boost to continue for the online partner of Odawa Casinos?
PokerStars up nearly 14% in revenue for 2023
The impact of launching interstate poker was immediately felt for PokerStars Casino.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board doesn’t separate online poker revenue from its online casino revenue. So, specific revenue from poker isn’t entirely clear. However, PokerStars overall revenue growth is a good indicator.
In January, it saw a 64.6% growth in revenue from December 2022. Revenue went from $2.2 million to $3.6 million.
Everyone likes a shiny new toy, so the ability to play online poker with players from New Jersey produced the expected boost right away.
However, that boost has been holding steady throughout 2023 thus far.
| Month | 2022 Revenue | 2023 Revenue | Percent Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | $3,109,849 | $3,643,776 | 17.2% |
| February | $2,628,928 | $2,890,894 | 10.0% |
| March | $2,606,888 | $3,066,993 | 17.6% |
| April | $2,706,536 | $2,783,651 | 2.8% |
| May | $2,462,716 | $2,994,496 | 21.6% |
| June | $2,368,365 | $2,804,930 | 18.4% |
| July | $2,255,186 | $2,976,649 | 32.0% |
| August | $2,560,195 | $3,012,568 | 17.7% |
| September | $2,242,709 | $2,595,247 | 15.7% |
| Total | $22,941,370 | $26,769,203 | 16.7% |
Three different months in 2023 have seen revenue at least 17% higher than what PokerStars produced in 2022.
PokerStars up more than BetMGM in 2023
It should be noted that Michigan online casinos in general are in a really solid boost for 2023.
Collectively, the Michigan iGaming industry is up 23.3% in revenue through the first five months of 2023 when compared to the first five months of 2022.
Now, it should also be noted that Michigan had just 14 online casinos for the first quarter of 2022, so the collective growth in 2023 being so high is somewhat askew.
PokerStars’ 13.8% increase thus far in 2023 still holds up with a number of other operators. Their growth tops the likes of BetMGM Michigan (7.7%) and WynnBet Casino MI (9.7%).
The journey for PokerStars is quite interesting dating back to its launch in 2021.
In its infancy, PokerStars/Stars Casino was able to be a top-five online casino throughout the first half of 2021. It produced its peak month of revenue in March of 2021 at $5.8 million.
However, things quickly dropped and PokerStars was even below $1 million by October of 2021. Since then it has been slowly trying to build back up.
After putting up $3.1 million in January of 2022, PokerStars didn’t have a single month over $2.7 million for the rest of the year. That has already been surpassed in all five months of 2023.
PokerStars announced WCOOP 2023 for September
PokerStars MI is shaping up for a big fall as it recently announced the return of its World Championship of Online Poker series.
WCOOP will be returning on Sept. 10 and run for three weeks, concluding on Oct. 4.
The specific schedule has yet to be released, but PokerStars has announced that WCOOP main events will begin on Sunday, Oct. 1.
The 2023 WCOOP tournaments will be open to anyone. Buy-ins will start at just $5.50, while other ways to qualify for higher buy-in events will also be available.
In 2022, a total of 367 tournaments were held during WCOOP. The overall prize pool sat at $108.6 million while first place prizes capped off at $17 million.
Since beginning 21 years ago, the WCOOP series had dished over more than $1.2 billion in prize money.
