PokerStars

Solution

The Team Stars community has become the go-to platform for fast, flexible research across markets and topics. Compared to other internal methods, research can be achieved 4x faster through Alida and receives significantly higher response rates (15x higher). 

As the Marketing Insight team use the platform in such a hands-on way, they’ve been able to open up new ways of understanding players that would have been difficult or impossible by other means. This includes:

• Early access testing
  Offering Team Stars members the exclusive opportunity to sign up to pilot test new features. The team used Alida’s forums to create a branded experience for ‘Ace Testers’ to connect with the product team directly to provide specific feedback on brand new features only available to them. The product team were able to spot bugs and make improvements before full launch.
  
  
• Live event feedback
  At major live tournaments, surveys capture real-time feedback via QR code to improve event experience, understand event expectations, and even test and launch new side events.
  
  
• Managing change
  Supporting the collaboration between PokerStars X Sisal (Flutter owned Italian brand, with a rich heritage in sports and retail) as the partnership unlocks a new poker/sports platform to players. By reaching out to members who were dual account holders of both brands on Team Stars, they were able to test the customer journey and communications strategy.
  
  
• Creative and campaign testing
  Quick reads, message checks, and visual concepts are all tested with real players who understand poker culture and can instantly tell brand and marketing teams what resonates and what doesn’t. They even cast a real member in a TV ad!
  
  
• Operational and CX feedback
  From onboarding to payments to broader customer journey challenges, they’ve used the community to stress-test what’s working and what’s not.

Thanks to using the Alida community strategically to support the big business challenges at PokerStars, these are just the top examples of where there has been huge benefit from leveraging player insights.

Results

Earlier this year, Team Stars really proved its value and displayed the speed and efficiency the Insights team can deliver. With the rise of AI and other disruptive technology, executives and business leaders were curious about how players feel about these trends and needed answers fast to impact critical planning. 

The Insights team was able to quickly deploy a multi-language community survey across five markets, asking members to submit their answers directly to the CEO. They received 394 responses in just 20 minutes. The ultimate impact came on Day 2, with a final number of 1,800 responses, when the data was delivered alongside a compelling video showreel. 

In a uniquely impactful moment, a player's emotional video sharing fears that AI could “destroy the spirit of poker” humanized the data for the executive team. This demonstrated the team's ability to achieve direct executive impact through the speed, scale, and authenticity of community feedback.

Six years in, the community has grown into a central part of how PokerStars understands players, shape products, test ideas, and make decisions. It’s fast, flexible, and deeply human - which feels more important than ever.

The Team Stars community offers:

• a direct line to real players
• the ability to create small, meaningful moments of insight
• and a space to test, learn, break things, fix things, and build better experiences

Player feedback makes businesses connected and resilient. Through the careful guardianship of the PokerStars insight team, it has supported a research culture that feels modern, honest and genuinely player-first.