PokerStars triggers major international recruitment drive amid brand review
Flutter Entertainment hiring for more than 200 technology roles after promising to invest in neglected poker product
PokerStars has activated a huge international hiring spree focused on its technology-based teams as the firm recruits for more than 200 roles across six operating offices.
A total of 177 IT-based roles are currently available, with the bulk of those being based in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.
These roles include DevOps engineering roles and analysis-based roles, as well as project management and database administration. However, there are also IT-based roles up for grabs in the operator’s offices across Canada, India and the UK.
Outside of IT, PokerStars is actively recruiting for more than 200 jobs across marketing and player support services, as well as another 84 positions spread across its casino, business support and business intelligence divisions.
All in all, the operator is recruiting for more than 450 new jobs.
EGR understands a significant number of redundancies have been finalised across the PokerStars business in recent weeks, having initially been flagged back in September 2019.
The latest recruitment drive comes after parent company Flutter Entertainment ignited a full-scale review of the PokerStars brand following the completion of its takeover of The Stars Group (TSG) in May.
This review has seen Flutter commit to further investment in the brand after the group asserted its pre-merger belief that PokerStars’ historically high profit margins were driven by underinvesting in the business.
Flutter also withdrew PokerStars from complex Asian markets in September as it seeks to cut the cord on unregulated revenue as part of a wider focus on compliance and market exposure.
“It is clear that the customer perception of the PokerStars product lags behind competitors in a number of jurisdictions and we have work to do to address this,” Flutter claimed in its Q2 financial results.
“We are looking at ways in which we may be able to accelerate development work on product and operational improvements to address these gaps and to build increased flexibility into the technology stack.
“In addition, much can be done to improve the sports betting offering within our newly formed International division and we will leverage the assets of the rest of the group to accelerate this.”
PokerStars now operates as part of Flutter’s International division and its US-facing division having been siloed into two operating segments following the takeover.