Online gaming has a language problem.
Browse enough betting, poker and casino brands and you begin to see the same phrases appearing again and again: made for excitement, huge prizes, world-class gaming, play your way, an experience like no other.
Change the logo and much of the copy could belong to almost anybody.
That was the starting challenge when I worked on a new global tone of voice for PokerStars. The brand already had something many competitors would love to possess: a genuine history, a passionate community and considerable credibility within the world of poker. But the new voice could not be designed for poker alone. It also had to work for PokerStars Casino and PokerStars Sports, creating a recognisable brand voice across three related but very different gaming experiences.
The answer was not to force every part of the business to sound identical. Nor was it to create three disconnected personalities that happened to share a logo.
The challenge was to find the common PokerStars DNA and then allow it to behave naturally at the poker table, on the casino floor and in the stands.
Escaping the sea of sameness
The online gaming sector is full of functional language. Offers need explaining, tournaments require dates and entry details, accounts need verifying, and regulatory information must remain clear.
All of that is necessary.
But when every brand relies on the same functional vocabulary, the result is what we described in the playbook as a sea of sameness. The category becomes louder without becoming more distinctive.
PokerStars had an opportunity to stand out by returning to its roots.
The brand was not invented in a marketing meeting and dressed up to look as though it understood poker. It had grown around the tables, tournaments, personalities and language of the game. That gave us a far richer starting point than another collection of generic claims about excitement and rewards.
The central thought became Born at the Tables.
This was not intended to restrict the voice to poker terminology. It represented authenticity: language that felt as though it belonged in the experience rather than being applied to it afterwards by somebody standing outside.
For poker, the test was whether the writing captured the feeling, energy, expertise and banter of sitting at a tournament table.
For casino, the voice needed to convey the rush, wonder and sense of fun found on the casino floor.
For sports, it had to reflect the build-up, suspense, enthusiasm and collective hope experienced in the stands or on the pitch.
Five shared principles, expressed in three different ways
To hold the brand together, we created five core tone of voice principles:
Authentic, but never clichéd.
Passionate, but never overpowering.
Humorous, but always respectful.
Competitive, but never hostile.
Expert, but never condescending.
These principles provided the common character running through PokerStars Poker, Casino and Sports. However, the way they appeared changed according to the product and audience.
In poker, authenticity came from credible insights and language recognised by people who genuinely understood the game. Passion reflected the tension of a tournament and the anticipation of the next card. Humour grew out of table talk and camaraderie rather than a stream of tired poker puns.
The expert principle was especially important. PokerStars needed to demonstrate real knowledge while welcoming everyone from first-time players to seasoned professionals. Expertise should make people feel more at home, not remind them that somebody else knows more than they do.
Casino required a slightly different expression. The language could feel vibrant, playful and atmospheric, capturing the anticipation of a spin or the enjoyment of discovering a new game. But it needed to avoid the clichés and exaggerated glamour often associated with casino advertising.
Sports drew its energy from the match itself: the tension before kick-off, the unpredictability of play and the friendly tribalism that brings supporters together. Competitive language could add excitement, but it should never spill into hostility between teams, players or fans.
The principles therefore created consistency without flattening the differences that made each area interesting.
Giving the voice a volume control
A tone of voice cannot operate at full volume all the time.
A tournament promotion can carry more energy and specialist language than an identity-verification message. A football preview can feel more playful than a technical update. Responsible gaming information needs a different level of restraint from social content celebrating a major event.
So the playbook introduced three levels of tone: low, medium and high.
Low-volume copy began with clarity and compliant facts. The language was direct, helpful and lightly branded.
At medium volume, we could introduce more terminology, character and atmosphere while keeping the message immediately understandable.
High volume allowed the writing to become much more immersive, drawing fully on the language and energy of poker, casino or sport.
The important point was that volume never meant sacrificing clarity. Even at its most expressive, the copy still had a job to do.
The playbook also made clear that medium and high volumes were primarily intended for marketing materials, editorial content, games and events, subject to compliance approval. They were not generally appropriate for responsible gaming, account management or technical content, where clear and comprehensive information had to take priority.
This kind of control is particularly important in regulated gaming copywriting. A distinctive brand voice should improve engagement and understanding, not obscure terms, conditions or responsible gambling messages behind a stack of clever metaphors.
Showing the difference, rather than merely explaining it
Tone of voice principles become useful when people can see them working.
The PokerStars playbook therefore included a substantial library of real-world examples across poker, casino and sportsbook communications. Each example was written at low, medium and high volume so teams could see how the same information changed as more brand character was introduced.
The scenarios ranged from major tournament announcements and player rewards to account verification, payment methods, technical problems, game closures and cookie information.
For sports, the examples included free bets, match tips, accumulator wins and service updates. Casino covered areas including mobile availability, deactivated games and responsible gaming communications.
This range was deliberate. A brand tone of voice is not proven by writing one exciting campaign headline. It is proven when it can handle the glamorous, the functional, the celebratory and the awkward without losing either its personality or its judgement.
We also created quick-reference cheat sheets and interactive writing sessions, helping teams apply the principles rather than leaving them to interpret an 88-page document alone. Exercises invited writers to rewrite real examples, compare different volume levels and ask whether the final copy genuinely felt as though it belonged at the tables, on the casino floor or within the sporting action.
Making a global voice work in different languages
One of the most interesting parts of the project was taking the tone beyond English.
The playbook was transcreated into Italian and Portuguese, and I worked directly with the local Italian and Portuguese teams to make sure the voice remained effective in each market.
That word — transcreated — matters.
A global tone of voice cannot simply be translated line by line. Poker terminology, sporting language, humour and conversational rhythm do not move neatly between cultures. A phrase that sounds authentic in English may feel forced, confusing or simply ridiculous when translated literally.
The aim was therefore to preserve the intention behind the voice rather than every individual word.
We looked at whether the principles still felt natural in each language, whether local gaming terminology was credible and whether the balance between expertise, humour and accessibility survived the journey.
That collaborative process helped create a multilingual tone of voice that remained recognisably PokerStars without expecting Italian or Portuguese writers to imitate an English-speaking poker fan.
Good global brand voice work should create consistency of character, not uniformity of expression.
A practical global tone of voice
The finished PokerStars tone of voice playbook was designed to solve a genuinely complicated problem.
It created one recognisable global brand voice while respecting the different worlds of poker, casino and sports. It provided shared principles, individual product guidance, a clear volume system, extensive examples, cheat sheets and practical exercises.
It also accounted for the realities of regulated gaming communications and the cultural complexity of taking a distinctive voice into different languages.
That is the kind of tone of voice work I do as a freelance Creative Director, global tone of voice copywriter and regulated-industry copywriter.
I help brands identify what makes their language distinctive, then turn that thinking into practical tools people can use across teams, channels, products and markets.
Sometimes that means helping a multinational organisation create consistency across several countries and languages. Sometimes it means helping a growing SME develop its first proper brand voice before different people begin taking the writing in different directions.
The scale changes. The need to sound clear, distinctive and genuinely human does not.
You can see selected pages from the PokerStars global tone of voice project here:
https://juliangratton.onfabrik.com/portfolio/pokerstars-tone-of-voice
To see more of the full tone of voice playbook, or to discuss a global brand voice, gaming copywriting, transcreation or regulated copywriting project, please get in touch.