PokerStars’ Spin and Go: New Payouts Structure Unveiled
PokerStars has unveiled another game change after the recent introduction of Power Paths. However, this change is on the popular Spin and Go games that debuted in 2014, making the payouts more balanced than its original top-heavy prizes. Below, we’ll look into the poker room’s changes and what players can expect from the game. You should know that the new payout structure is currently only implemented in the Southern European segregated networks of the operator.
Spin and Go Format
The original format is the LSNG (lottery-style sit-and-go) one, which assigns random prizes at the beginning of each tournament. The jackpot prize is 12,000x the buy-in, and players start with 500 chips, and the games usually last two to six minutes.
LSNG-style games are pretty famous, with poker rooms like Winamax, Unibet, and more using it in innovative tournaments, like Winamax’s Expresso LSNG tournaments.
Further, the rake structure ranges between 7% and 8% depending on the buy-in amount, and the payout had a more top-heavy structure. However, with the new changes implemented, it’s become significantly harder to land high wins or the jackpot as the payouts transformed into bottom-to-middle-heavy ones.
New Changes
PokerStars is losing cash game figures and is taking steps to attract new players. The brand changed its Sit and Go structure to better balance payments with casual players in mind, and we look at what these changes mean.
Multipliers
The multiplier probabilities have been changed to determine which multipliers you will most likely hit. Hitting 2x and 3x multipliers now has a reduced probability, and 4x multipliers are back, with 50x and 100x multipliers introduced as well. However, the operator removed 240x and 120x multipliers, making the new 100x multiplier the highest in the paytable, except for the 12,000x jackpot.
The chances of hitting the 12,000x jackpot have changed from one in a million games to one in ten million. However, other multipliers have an increased chance of landing, like the 10x multiplier, which had a 0.61% chance of hitting, now has a 1.09% chance of hitting.
Prize Pool Distribution
Another change is to the prize pool distribution to balance the payouts across the different levels. The 80% first-place prize pool distribution remains the same when hitting the 10x multipliers and higher. However, the split between second and third place goes from 10%-10% to 12%-8%.
Applicable Market
PokerStars is first testing this change in the Southern European market, activating it on Portugal, France, Spain and Italian networks. While the brand hasn’t implemented it on the dot-com market, it might not be long before it becomes a global change. That is if we’re to believe PokerStars’ Discord representative’s hints.
PokerStars vs GGPoker
One of the reasons PokerStars is implementing all these changes is to try revitalising its offering. If we look at cash game traffic, it’s clear the brand is trying to keep up with GGPoker, but falling behind in the numbers. However, while PokerStars is trying to keep up with GGPoker’s growing network, the low cash game figures are a significant handicap that makes it unlikely to overtake GGPoker anytime soon.
