Being the dominant leader of the global online poker industry, any time a change is made to the standard routine at PokerStars, no matter how big or small, it always seems to make headlines almost immediately. For that reason, many were shocked to learn that the terms of the long-standing new player welcome bonuses offered to first-time depositors at PokerStars and Full Tilt were altered; not recently, but sometime last year.
It wasn’t until one perceptive canvasser from the online poker community took a moment to read over the terms of the new player deposit bonus on PokerStars, which had not (as far as anyone knew) been altered in years, that the truth of the matter was finally discovered.
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“The $600 welcome bonus was always a 17x multiplier, $10 released per 170 vpps. ~32.3% rakeback. 6 months to clear, after each of up to 3 qualifying deposits,” read the discovery of poster ‘jspill’ on the popular TwoPlusTwo forums. “Now it’s 20x multiplier, 27.5% rakeback, the 6 months now 4”. Twenty minutes later, another post explained that the trio of welcome bonus deposits “must be within 60 days now, previously 90”.
In layman’s terms, PokerStars has changed three small aspects of the welcome bonus, decreasing its overall value by approximately 5%, and shortening the duration in which a player is allowed to clear the bonus. As in past years, a new player still receives a 100% up to $600 deposit bonus that can be claimed over 1, 2 or 3 deposits (ex. deposit $600 once, $300 twice or $200 three times for a total $600 bonus). However, players used to have 180 days to clear each portion of the bonus, now cut down to 120 days, and the time allotted to claim all three bonuses was reduced from 90 to 60 days.
For serious grinders, the time frame is not an issue, but the increase in VPP requirements could be a turnoff. Having to collect 20 VPP for every $1 of the bonus, as opposed to 17 VPP per $1, translates to a near 5% drop in rakeback profit. VIP online poker players always take into account the value of promotions, player points and other incentives, often choosing to dedicate their time to the poker site that offers the best combination of rakeback and cash game/tournament value.
As a sister-site to PokerStars, the next obvious step was to investigate the terms of Full Tilt’s welcome bonus, which “jspill” soon reported as being altered as well. While the rakeback value remains the same, locked in at an impressive 40%, the timeframe for a player to clear the single-purchase, 100% up to $600 welcome bonus was cut in half from 120 to just 60 days.
The original assumption was that the changes were brought about by Rational Group’s new owners, Amaya Gaming, in an effort to increase profits (i.e. helping to pay off the $4.9 billion purchase price agreed upon by the Scheinberg’s over the summer). However, thanks to the forward thinking of another member of the 2+2 online poker community, “Hood”, it was revealed that both poker sites changed their bonus terms back in 2013.
Hood posted a link to two snapshots of the bonus terms and conditions at PokerStars (kudos to ‘Hood’ for following protocol and saving the terms!), one from May of 2013, depicting the old rules, and another from October 2013, reflecting the enactment of the new terms. The same poster then offered another snapshot that “goes back to at least December 2013”, revealing the alterations to Full Tilt’s bonus rules. So, at best, we can at least conclude that Amaya was not responsible for the (not so) new welcome bonus terms at PokerStars and Full Tilt.