FanDuel Looks to Grow Online Poker Arm in the United States

The mushrooming sportsbetting brand FanDuel is emerging as a potential partner to PokerStars as online poker grows in both popularity and accessibility in the United States. Flutter Entertainment, which owns both companies, is planning a possible merger between FanDuel Poker and the biggest name in poker for the past 25 years.

Are Flutter Merging Two Giants?

Could poker and sportsbetting be growing together in the very near future? This week, a business merger that looks to make a lot of sense was rumored to be getting closer than ever.

FanDuel, a leading sportsbook and online casino site in a year where such companies have grown larger and larger, may be joining forces with the biggest poker operator in the market. The sportsbetting giant, who recently pulled out of Las Vegas, could well be adding a poker client in three more states. A series of indicators appear to suggest that FanDuel will be launched as a poker product in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. New hiring, an updated web infrastructure and internal roles with amended job specifications don’t just hint at changes; they announce them.

Muted rumors of such a merger were speculated upon back in May of last year. At the time, the World Series of Poker was about to begin seven weeks of live poker and the attention of the world was focused on Las Vegas not the business pages of Flutter. From then until now, the company haven’t commented on such speculation... but they haven’t shut it down either.

There would, of course, be one issue in terms of which site absorbs the other. While both entities would continue to run their own sites separately as they are so successful in different areas of business, would PokerStars players be able to play on a new account on FanDuel or would FanDuel’s sportsbettors need to sign up to ‘Stars? It would seem the former suits both parties best, with the massive marketing budgets and rapid online growth making the newer company more appealing for the idea.

Does Online Poker Facility Exist for FanDuel?

Sportsbetting and poker do go together, but often there can be anger if poker companies incorporate betting directly on its site. The two-time European Poker Tour Main Event winner Victoria Coren famously quit her role as a Team PokerStars Pro in protest about the addition of casino games to the prominent face of PokerStars, not wanting to promote gambling above the game she loved.

How do PokerStars players feel about partnering with a sportsbetting site not just in terms of umbrella ownership but in active merger? According to a report by Poker Industry PRO, Flutter is building a FanDuel-branded poker client, which would be a major leap purely in terms of online infrastructure. In 2025, Pennsylvania joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), which will allow cross-state play for participating networks. Sportsbetting sites such as Polymarket and Kalshi have recently expanded their portfolios to include futures markets as they fall through a loophole in U.S. policy on gambling in certain states.

Fancying a Flutter

The addition of poker to sportsbetting behemoth FanDuel via the market leader PokerStars would further grow FanDuel in an era that it is starting to dominate within its sector. This latest move will also kickstart other companies in prospecting the notion of regulated U.S. online poker, potentially opening the whole country up to a return to pre-Black Friday levels of accessibility.

PokerStars have long been market leaders in poker, but this could be the kind of inspiration that sees them associated with innovation again, as in the days of Isai Scheinberg.

There would be plenty of fans of that.

Paul Seaton, an esteemed figure in the poker community with over ten years of experience, has provided live coverage from renowned poker tournaments like the World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour, and World Poker Tour. His involvement goes beyond observation; he has served as the Editor of BLUFF Europe Magazine and Head of Media for partypoker.