Did you know that Amaya is the biggest poker network in existence today? The road there has been quite an adventure, and actually quite complicated as it is ripe with company acquisitions and name changes. The end result is perhaps the poker network, one that weathered all the storms and continues to offer players the grand experience of playing poker online.

But first things first, Amaya is no longer a company that exists as such. They are today known as Flutter Entertainment, which in turn is a combination of some of the biggest stars in online gambling. The name is probably not familiar to you, as it is not a brand itself. Rather, all these different things it offers are unique and established brands. Let’s take a look at how all this came about.

The Starting Point

Amaya Gaming was officially founded in 2004. The company was established in Canada, but soon expanded into other markets including Europe and Africa. Their offering concentrated on traditional casino games at first, especially table games. In addition, they dabbled in lottery games, including mobile lottery. Poker, in other words, wasn’t something that Amaya had lots of influence on. This started to change around 2010 as the company started acquiring other casino gaming companies, including Chartwell Technologies and CryptoLogic. This was merely the starting point that saw Amaya quickly climb into fame and market dominance.

It’s worth noting that they also expanded into land-based markets, including US casino markets. At this point, they were starting to amass a piece of pretty much everything that had something to do with gambling, from payment processing to slots, table games and poker platforms.

Rise To Fame

The big change for the company came around 2014 when they acquired Rational Group, for a massive investment of nearly 5 billion dollars. The reason why they could afford such a purchase probably lies in the fact that they are publicly traded. The purchase is considerable, especially if you take into account the fact that the previous company bought by Amaya had cost merely tens in millions, a pittance in comparison.

Rational Group itself is best known for PokerStars and FullTilt, the two biggest poker platforms to exist, even to date. This obviously placed Amaya on the top as the biggest online poker provider in the world. It’s worth noting that both of these massive poker platforms had continuously struggled with US markets. Amaya on the other hand had a way back in, especially as the United States was finally sorting out its legislation regarding online gambling. This wasn’t entirely without issues, as lawsuits regarding the past of PokerStars threatened the company with fines of hundreds of millions. These were ultimately sorted, and the company was free to explore its dominant positions in casino gaming markets. Around this time the company was renamed into the Stars Group.

From Stars to Flutter

There’s another big name that ties into the journey Amaya has taken, and that is Sky Betting. This deal was completed in 2018 for another few billions, with Fox Bet being another purchase around the same time, increasing the company’s presence in casinos around the world. Merely a year later the company was acquired by Flutter Entertainment, with a price tag of around 6 billion dollars. This is a holding company that was the result of two of the major players in online casino gaming: Paddy Power and Betfair.

As you can see, though the name Amaya is not a brand by itself, it is behind or connected to some of the biggest online gambling companies to exist. Truthfully, the company itself doesn’t really exist anymore. It is however deeply connected to the world of online poker gaming, and remains the framework under which these big poker sites function today.

Current Situation

All the major brands live on under Flutter Entertainment. PokerStars, Full Tilt, Sky Betting, and much more are available via their dedicated websites or other solutions. Though Amaya was always more famous for purchasing other companies and brands, they did produce a handful of games themselves too. These can still be found in select online casinos around the world, though we can’t be sure how long that will be the case. It’s worth checking out, though more than likely you will find the poker games a tad bit more interesting and extensive.