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PokerEnginePro
Decision guide

Join a poker network,
or run a room of your own?

A network gives a new room players on day one. A standalone room gives it everything else: its brand, its rules, its player relationships. 2026 showed how quickly networks change. Here is how to choose.
The comparisonRequest a demo

The short answer

Which to choose

Join a network if

  • Players at the tables on day one matter more than anything else.
  • Your markets allow shared liquidity, and the network is licensed in them.
  • You are content for the network to set the software, the games and the schedule.

Run a standalone room if

  • Poker is a product you want to shape: your lobby, your formats, your promotions, your rules.
  • Your market ring-fences its players, so a network's pool would not reach them anyway.
  • You want the player relationship and the data to stay with you if a network changes.

Side by side

The comparison

  • Liquidity on day one

    Join a network
    The network's shared pool, from the first hand.
    Standalone room
    Your own players, built over time.

  • Brand

    Join a network
    Your brand as a skin on shared software — or, on some networks, the network's own brand in your market.[2][1]
    Standalone room
    Your brand on everything players see.

  • What sets you apart

    Join a network
    On GGNetwork, skins share one pool and one product and differ mainly in bonuses, payments and regions.[2]
    Standalone room
    Anything the platform allows: games, formats, table features, schedules.

  • Software and games

    Join a network
    The network's, the same for every brand on it.
    Standalone room
    Chosen by you, market by market.

  • Player accounts and data

    Join a network
    Governed by the network's terms, which are rarely published. Read them before signing.
    Standalone room
    Yours.

  • Regulation

    Join a network
    Pooling only where regulators allow it, and only with players in those markets.
    Standalone room
    The same rules. In a ring-fenced market, every room plays with local players only.

  • Economics

    Join a network
    A share of rake and revenue to the network; terms rarely published.
    Standalone room
    All of the rake, and all of the cost of bringing players.

  • Risk of change

    Join a network
    Networks close, merge and lose members: Betfair left iPoker for the PokerStars Network in August 2026.[4]
    Standalone room
    The platform stays where you put it.

  • Tournaments and promotions

    Join a network
    The network's schedule and series, with your promotions on top.
    Standalone room
    Your own guarantees, series and satellites.

  • Leaving

    Join a network
    Your players move only if their accounts, balances and history move with them.
    Standalone room
    Nothing to leave.

Shared liquidity, market by market

A network's pool reaches only as far as the regulators let it. In the United States, states pool players through the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement: Pennsylvania joined in April 2025, and WSOP now pools Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Michigan has authorised BetMGM to share players across states, and BetRivers runs a four-state pool on Run It Once software.

Elsewhere, many regulated markets keep their players to themselves. Where a market ring-fences, a network brings the software and the brand, but not the players from outside.[8][9][10]

Networks move

In August 2026 Betfair Poker left Playtech's iPoker network for the PokerStars Network, with Paddy Power and Sky Poker due to follow. A year earlier, partypoker's French and Spanish rooms moved onto iPoker. OlyBet joined GGNetwork in 2020, and Microgaming closed its poker network the same year.

Each move is a migration for every brand involved: new software, new terms, players to carry across. An operator that owns its platform decides when, and whether, that happens.[4][5][6][7]

How a standalone room builds liquidity

A standalone room starts with its own players, and that is the honest gap against any network. PokerEnginePro closes it the way standalone rooms do: one pool across all of an operator's markets where the rules allow, regional pools for the largest, and formats that fill tables.

  • Satellites and tickets feeding bigger events, with guarantees and overlay handled.
  • Fields of up to 10,000 players in one tournament.
  • Play money and real money on one platform, with a social casino built in.
  • Table features players look for: run it twice, all-in insurance, bomb pots.
  • Private and invite-code rooms, and home games their owners run.
  • Mixed games, Stud and Draw for the players other rooms leave out.

Where PokerEnginePro fits

PokerEnginePro is a platform for standalone rooms. It does not run a network across operators. Each operator runs its own pool on its own platform — self-hosted or hosted — with its own rules per market, and the licence stays with the operator.

Questions

Asked and answered

How big are the largest networks?

GGPoker reported over 900,000 concurrent logged-in users on 3 May 2026, during a festival. The PokerStars Network describes itself as the largest regulated liquidity pool.[3][1]

Which US states share poker liquidity?

Those in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement. WSOP pools Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania; BetMGM and BetRivers also run multi-state pools.[8][9][10]

What happens to my players if a network changes?

They move with your brand only if the new arrangement carries their accounts and balances across. When Betfair left iPoker in 2026, it relaunched on the PokerStars Network.[4]

Does PokerEnginePro offer shared liquidity?

Not across operators. Each operator runs its own pool, across all its markets where regulators allow, with regional pools for the largest.

Can a standalone room compete with a network?

On product, yes: its own formats, games and promotions. On day-one traffic, no. Standalone rooms win by serving players a network does not, and by growing tournaments through satellites.

Method

Facts about other companies come from their own pages and from trade press, listed here with the date each was last checked. Facts about PokerEnginePro describe the platform itself. Where a company does not publish something, the page says so instead of guessing. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.

Last reviewed 7 October 2026

Sources

  1. [1]PokerStars Network: home page — Flutter / PokerStars, checked 7 October 2026
  2. [2]GG Network — VIP-Grinders, checked 7 October 2026
  3. [3]GGPoker smashes traffic records with 900,000 players — pokerfuse, checked 7 October 2026
  4. [4]PokerStars announces major network restructuring — PokerNews, checked 7 October 2026
  5. [5]European partypoker network moves to iPoker — WorldPokerDeals, checked 7 October 2026
  6. [6]OlyBet joins the world's largest poker network — European Gaming, checked 7 October 2026
  7. [7]MPN is shutting down its online poker operations — PokerNews, checked 7 October 2026
  8. [8]WSOP shared liquidity across Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania — Caesars Entertainment, checked 7 October 2026
  9. [9]BetMGM authorised to enable shared liquidity for multi-state internet poker — Michigan Gaming Control Board, checked 7 October 2026
  10. [10]Multi-state BetRivers Poker network — SBC Americas, checked 7 October 2026

PokerStars, PokerStars Network, GGPoker, GGNetwork, iPoker, Playtech, Betfair, Paddy Power, Sky Poker, partypoker, OlyBet, Microgaming, WSOP, BetMGM, BetRivers and Run It Once are trademarks of their respective owners. PokerEnginePro is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of them.

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