PokerStars’ announcement that it would drastically reduce VIP benefitsfor some of the site’s biggest grinders was not taken well by the poker community. Angered by the proposed changes, more than 2,500 Stars regulars organized a three-day boycottof the site at the start of this month, the results of which have been mixed. In a recent blog post, PokerStars acknowledged the boycott and discussed how it affected the site’s ecosystem.

On the gaming giant’s blog on Wednesday, PokerStarsVP of Corporate Communications Eric Hollreiser (pictured) announced that the company would offer four $1 million freerolls in 2016. This is, as he said, one facet of PokerStars’ strategy to attract more casual players to the site, something it argues will help make up for some of the VIP players’ lost benefits.

But the talk soon turned to the player boycott, with Hollreiser reassuring that the company has “been taking steps – across the whole business – to address these changes.”

That said, he wrote that the boycott did not have much of an effect on site’s traffic, likely because of a spike in users due to the start of PokerStars’ Christmas promotions. He did, however, assure that the boycott did not go unnoticed. “We care very deeply about what players say and what they expect of us,” he said.

He addressed the complaints that players who worked hard to achieve Supernova Elite status this year were unaware that they would reap far fewer benefits in 2016 for achieving that milestone. Hollreiser reminded, however, that the company announced it would make significant VIP program changes back in October 2014 “and repeated this several times throughout 2015.”

Contrary to what many believe, the changes were in the pipeline long before Amaya acquired the company in 2014. In fact, Stars wanted to make the changes this year, but Amaya decided to delay the VIP program restructuring until 2016.

He did acknowledge that the company might have been able to do a better job of communicating the move to players, but added that there “was no intention to deceive and certainly not to profit from this.” He continued by revealing that “an increase in the number of Supernova Elite, who are on average net withdrawing players, does not provide a financial benefit to us.”

Unfortunately for the site’s multi-tabling grinders, Hollreiser said that the existing VIP plan was “no longer fit for its purpose” and said that the company would not be altering its plans.

For those still wondering if the boycott helped their cause, now we know the answer – it didn’t. Hollreiser relayed that the company did, in fact, feel the impact of the event, but not in a way that grinders had hoped.

As some had feared, the boycott simply confirmed for PokerStars that making the changes is the right move. The recent boycott “gives us even greater confidence that our strategy is on the right track to improve the health of the ecosystem,” said Hollreiser. “During the three-day boycott, we recorded the healthiest consecutive three-day ecosystem results of the year with steady net gaming revenue, even though our net-depositing players lost at a much lower rate than they have all year.”

He believes that with fewer sharks feeding on amateurs, those casual players will be able to play longer and put more money into the system “because players are enjoying their time at the tables more.”

The apparent futility of the boycott will no doubt give some poker pros pause and overturn the idea that poker sites are dependent on high-volume players to thrive. “This is the right foundation for us to build on,” said Hollreiser.

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