Inside PokerStars: Unrivalled care for players all part of the ‘dream’ job for Willie Elliot
Inside PokerStars: Interview with Willie Eillot, PokerStars Customer Engagement Manager
They’re usually small stories; almost run-of-the-mill you could say. And they’re usually mentioned in passing. But it’s exactly because of this that they show how ingrained the care and depth of feeling PokerStars has for its players actually is.
Willie Elliot, PokerStars Customer Engagement Manager, recounts a few such stories when we get together for our Inside PokerStars interview as the PokerStars Open Namur in Belgium draws to a close in early June.
“I’ve personally witnessed a hundred examples where I’ve seen our team go above and beyond for a player,” offers Willie. “Toby Stone in particular, quietly making things right for a player when something had gone wrong.”
Willie Elliot taking in the Irish Poker Open at the Royal Dublin Society
Passion for Players
He continues: “We hire the best people and share with them the standard and level of care that we want to have for our players. The ‘passion for players’ that is one of our core principles. A value that everyone in the live events team shares.”
This passion feeds into Elliot’s own Number 1 favourite part of the job: Face-to-face player engagement. Nothing beats it according to the Scot.
“Speaking to players and getting that one-to-one feedback for how the event is going”, offers Elliot. “Hearing their issues first hand and where we can, resolving those issues. The satisfaction of fixing things that didn’t go as they should have. Having the players know that we are 100% committed to giving the best player experience possible at our events and never resting on our laurels.”
Do everything possible for the players
He quickly remembers something he was told: “A line stuck with me that a player shared: ‘PokerStars will make mistakes, all operators do, unexpected things happen at events and things go wrong, but PokerStars will always do everything possible to rectify it, even if it has a cost to their bottom line. Not all operators do that.’”
Willie testing out the photo framing for the eventual winner
It’s this desire to go the extra length that fuels the team, Elliot feels.
“We support each other, we’re all pulling in the same direction with the same goal, delivering the best live events possible. We know we have a winning formula and year on year, player numbers and player satisfaction continue to grow.
“2024 set new records in event ratings in our player surveys. Hard fought goodwill is now embedded in our players, and they trust us to deliver the best events, and they keep supporting these events by turning out in greater numbers.”
A recent addition for players, which Elliot has a major hand in, is the PokerStars Live League.
“(It’s) an annual leader board which will reward the best performing players across low medium and high buy events throughout 2025. A prize pool with a quarter of a million Euros in giveaways to reward our most loyal and capable players.”
His role at PokerStars
The Live League is just one part of a “varied” and admittedly impressive body of work that Elliot gets through on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Anytime we’re giving rewards to or engaging with our players, I’ll be involved in some aspect of that
“One of my core responsibilities is briefing and overseeing the satellites we offer to our live events, that lets players win their way to our events at a fraction of the cost. That involves working between live event managers and associates who plan and run the events and briefing our online poker operations team to ensure we have a varied and appealing satellite offer.”
He continues: “This area could be described as our ‘online to live’ offering. I also have responsibility for overseeing how we deliver our ‘live to online’ offer, helping convert the players who attend and love our live events and give them incentives to play online poker with us in a very competitive online poker marketplace.
“I also work at our events with various teams and assist with any player facing activities, promotions, engagements, media opportunities, etc. Anytime we’re giving rewards to or engaging with our players, I’ll be involved in some aspect of that.”
Before PokerStars
Fighting out of Glasgow, Elliot manages to travel quite extensively to many events across the globe in his role these days (“typically attend 8 to 10 events per year”) but who was he before PokerStars?
It’s an interesting story in its own right.
“I have lived many lives”, Elliot says before he casts his mind back. “My historic career had been as a screen printer, graphic designer and sign maker, running my own business from the mid-90s to the early 2000s. Directly before starting in the live events team, I had a few roles around the poker industry, blogger, photographer, graphic designer, video content creation.
“From 2003 to 2016 I had been the full-time carer for a disabled relative and while doing that, I became one of our regular UK live event players. The UKIPT was the tour that opened the door for me to the poker world, those Channel 4 TV shows shining a spotlight on a fantastic tour that players loved.
“My brother and I were serial qualifiers for the UKIPT and attended many of our events, with some considerable success (I finished in 4th place in our biggest ever UKIPT in Nottingham in 2014). I also managed to qualify for EPT London in 2013 and EPT Barcelona in 2016. I must have played 50+ 1k events and two EPTs but never spending more than £500 on a buy-in because I was good at satellites. My £67,000 / $113,000 win in 2014 came from a £162 online satellite.”
Willie remains a keen poker player himself and was a ‘serial qualifier for the UKIPT’ in the past
Behind the scenes with PokerStars
It was here that he got a behind the scenes look at the PokerStars live events operation and the attitude of the team and how they treat players.
“I got to experience the fantastic player care that PokerStars gave its qualifiers and players throughout my playing years. I have walked the path that our players qualifying to our events will walk, what the questions you have when you’re new to playing live poker.
“How best to help and assist those players and how to generate goodwill and brand loyalty with them so they want to come back to our next event and play on PokerStars to win their way to it in our satellites.”
Considering he’s been to so many PokerStars live events over the year, which is his favourite? It’s a question he ultimately struggles to answer.
“I love EPT Prague, one of my favourite events”, Elliot begins. “As a Scot, we grade cities based upon the price of a pint of beer. Prague €1.50. Monte-Carlo €15. That makes Prague ten times better”, he says with a knowing smile.
I can’t not mention the Women’s Winter Festival last year. A unique event with women from all over the world coming to the Hippodrome in London.
Then he’s off galivanting to another destination.
“The first PSPC in the Bahamas was incredible. Partly because it was my first event working on anything that scale, but also the year build up we had, getting to know our Platinum Pass winners, building a relationship and living the poker dream vicariously through them.”
Across the Irish Sea next.
“The most fun event however is the Irish Open. Something about the poker culture in Ireland that makes that tournament room and the players’ lounge (the Craic Den) have the best and most fun atmosphere of any event I’ve played or worked at.”
And he’s not done yet.
“I can’t not mention the Women’s Winter Festival last year. A unique event with women from all over the world coming to the Hippodrome in London. A community of women players coming to a £100,000 GTD main event and making it one of the most fun events I’ve ever been at. An event dreamed up by our ambassador Kerryjane Craige and the incredible marketing team, who believed in her vision.”
Eventually, he draws a breath and smirks.
“Did I name four events as my favourite when I was asked to choose one? Yes, yes, I did, and I have no regrets. It’d be like choosing my favourite child.”
Help from within PokerStars
And would you believe it? It goes the same way when he’s asked if there is any one person or team that has contributed to his own success in PokerStars. And off he goes.
“The folks on the UKIPT team were the reason I had the door opened to me to work for PokerStars. The high bar was set by them when I was a player for what the player experience should be when attending our events.
We put on the best live events and the players know it, which is why we see increasing numbers at our events every year
“My line manager is Hayley Clarke, and the head of live events is Cedric Billot. These two are the very best managers I have ever worked with. They go above and beyond to support me and make sure I feel valued and empowered to use the experience I have from my playing days and bring that to my role.
“And finally, I have the honour and privilege to work alongside the very best tournament director in the world, Toby Stone. The ethos and passion for our players that is set by him and instilled in all his floor staff and all his dealers. We have the best live events because he leads on this as his number one priority.”
He adds: “Toby ensures we have the highest standard live poker product in the marketplace. We put on the best live events and the players know it, which is why we see increasing numbers at our events every year.”
He’s undoubtedly a very busy man, but you get the sense that he never sees it as a “job”, it’s a calling, a way of life, something he adores.
“I sincerely believe I have my dream job. I often describe it as: there used to be a time when I would pay PokerStars to come to their events, hang around with my friends and talk poker. Now PokerStars pays me to come to their events, hang out with my friends and talk poker.”
Sounds like he’s doing something right.
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