Lex Veldhuis joins GGPoker as streaming ambassador 10 months after PokerStars exit

GGPoker has signed Lex Veldhuis as its Global Streaming Ambassador, pairing Twitch's leading poker channel with its creator program. The move takes PokerStars' longtime face to a rival while PokerStars' US business now runs only inside FanDuel, weeks before the GG-run WSOP Paradise series.

• GGPoker announced from Dublin on Nov. 3, 2026 that Lex Veldhuis had joined its GGTeam roster as Global Streaming Ambassador.
• Veldhuis said on Jan. 3, 2026 that his 17-year ambassador deal with PokerStars had ended, and neither side gave a reason.
• In January 2026, Veldhuis averaged 2,034 concurrent viewers over about 190 hours of streaming as the top channel in Twitch's Poker category.
• WSOP Paradise runs Dec. 2–17 at Baha Mar in the Bahamas with 20 bracelet events and $120 million in total guarantees.

GGPoker announced from Dublin on Nov. 3 that it had signed Lex Veldhuis to its GGTeam ambassador roster under the title Global Streaming Ambassador, according to European Gaming. The signing lands 10 months after Veldhuis said his 17-year ambassador deal with PokerStars had ended. He joins a GGTeam lineup led by Daniel Negreanu and Michael Mizrachi.

GGPoker hands Veldhuis its Streamer Mode program

The terms put Veldhuis to work on GGPoker’s own platform. He will stream on the site regularly, speak up for online poker content creators, promote the Streamer Mode program and run exclusive tournaments and promotions for his community. That combination gives GGPoker both a featured streamer and a recruiter for other creators.

Streamer Mode has a published entry bar. A creator needs three months of consistent poker streaming and an average of at least 40 concurrent viewers to be considered, PokerTube reported. Veldhuis now fronts a program whose minimum audience sits well below his own regular numbers, which positions him as the program’s showcase rather than a typical participant.

Dutch license let Veldhuis stream from home in January

Veldhuis announced on Jan. 3 that the PokerStars arrangement was over, and neither side gave a reason for the split, Poker Industry News reported. The geography of his streaming had been complicated for years. PokerStars left the Dutch market in November 2021 after an order from the regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit, and for close to three years Veldhuis traveled from his home in the Netherlands to a studio in Belgium to keep broadcasting.

GGPoker holds a Dutch license. That allowed Veldhuis to stream from home again in January, and he won the first tournament he played on his return, according to PokerTube. The audience followed him. In January 2026, his first month back, he was the top channel in Twitch’s Poker category, averaging 2,034 concurrent viewers over about 190 hours of streaming and adding 2,569 followers, Poker Industry News reported.

Those figures sit on a long track record. Veldhuis has nearly 330,000 Twitch followers and was named Streamer of the Year at the first two Global Poker Awards, which covered 2018 and 2019. His results on GGPoker have also arrived quickly. About five months before he signed, he won his first GGPoker title in the $5,250 Bounty Hunters Main Event for roughly $68,000, and he has since said he wants to play more live poker, Poker.org reported. PokerNews puts his live tournament cashes at more than $700,000.

PokerStars’ US sites now live only inside FanDuel

The PokerStars that Veldhuis left is not the PokerStars American players knew a year ago. Flutter told customers by email on March 3 that the standalone PokerStars real-money sites in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ontario would close, Poker Industry News reported. Four weeks later the replacement arrived.

On April 1, FanDuel switched on “PokerStars exclusively on FanDuel” in Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to the company’s release. Players from all three states now sit in a single combined pool, and the product runs on its own poker-only app plus a separate desktop version, both introduced for the launch. The brand still exists in those markets. It now operates as part of FanDuel’s product rather than as a separate client.

By the time of the Nov. 3 announcement, the ambassador who had represented PokerStars for 17 years was promoting a global rival. For the FanDuel-run US product, that means its shared pool across three states no longer has Veldhuis’s Twitch channel pointing viewers toward the PokerStars name. For GGPoker, the deal puts a large American streaming audience behind its creator push, regardless of where those viewers can legally play.

WSOP Paradise opens Dec. 2 at Baha Mar

The signing also ties Veldhuis to the GG-run WSOP ecosystem with a major live series a month away. WSOP Paradise 2026 runs Dec. 2–17 at the Baha Mar Hotel & Resort in the Bahamas, with 20 bracelet events and $120 million in total guarantees, PokerNews reported.

Poker.org said the signing raises the chance of Veldhuis returning to live poker, since the series starts a month later and is fairly close to his base in Costa Rica. His own stated interest in more live play points the same way. Neither the GGPoker announcement nor Veldhuis has tied the deal to a specific live event.

The schedule’s centerpiece arrives late in the series. The $25,000 Super Main Event, guaranteed at $50 million, runs Dec. 10–17.