Since 2012 the Battle of Malta was held in St. Julians in the heart of Malta – for the first years in the Portomaso Casino, later in the Olympic Casino Malta. This year the prestigious tournament will find shelter online as the Coronavirus prohibits live events of that size.
Instead of the Olympic Casino, GGPoker will host this year’s Battle of Malta and the operator is looking to turn the event into one of the largest low buy-in tournaments ever held online. GGPoker will guarantee a main event prize pool of no less than $3,000,000 while keeping the buy-in at $550. This means is already guaranteed that the Battle of Malta will break its own prize pool record again for the 8th year in a row. Last year 4,657 entries generated a prize pool of $2,258,645. We already know, this number will be surpassed this year. Here’s how the Battle of Malta grew over the past 9 years:
| Year | Entries | Prizepool | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 349 | € 169,265 |  Nicodemo Piccolo |
| 2013 | 888 | € 430,680 |  Louis Cartarius |
| 2014 | 1447 | € 701,795 |  Antoan Katsarov |
| 2015 | 1804 | € 874,940 |  Nicolas Proust |
| 2016 | 1813 | € 879,305 |  Robert Berglund |
| 2017 | 2074 | € 1,005,890 |  Nadav Lipszyc |
| 2018 | 3816 | € 1,850,760 | Julien Stropoli |
| 2019 | 4657 | € 2,258,645 |  Serghei Lisii |
| 2020 | ???? | at least $ 3,000,000 |
John Scanlon, Director of Live Events & Sponsorships at GGPoker said: “I’m genuinely excited to announce that the Battle of Malta 2020 will be hosted at GGPoker. It’s an honor to be unveiled as the organizers’ preferred online partner, and I’m confident that this year’s Battle of Malta will be bigger and better than ever!”
Slawomir Świtalski, General Manager of Casino Malta explained: “It is with a heavy heart that Casino Malta had to postpone the much-awaited Battle of Malta live event, but we’re elated to partner with such a prestigious brand as GGPoker. We look forward to seeing everyone in Malta in 2021 for a very special Battle of Malta.”
This summer GGPoker already became the temporal home for the WSOP and hosted the largest online event ever held online – the $25,000,000 gtd. WSOP Online Main Event. The WSOP at GGPoker was an instant success and it is to be expected that the Battle of Malta will also be hugely successful in this year’s online edition.
More about the Battle of Malta
Battle of Malta 2020 Schedule
The full schedule for the Battle of Malta 2020 was released as below. It will run for the first three weeks of November and feature a multitude of side events, satellites, and cheap qualifiers. Since the hit show Game of Thrones was initially filmed in Malta, this became part of the theme. There will be 15 ring events. The highlights are, of course, the Sunday events, including the Main Event (Nov 22), Siege of Malta (Nov 8), Mini Main Event (Nov 15). These three events will also receive GGPoker TV coverage which you can catch on their channels.
| DATE | GMT | EVENT # | EVENT NAME | BUY-IN | GTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov-1 | 15:00 | BoM Side | Let the Battle Begin $105 | $105 | $50,000 |
| Nov-1 | 15:00 | BoM Side | Let the Battle Begin $10.50 | $10.50 | $15,000 |
| Nov-1 | 15:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Six Swords [6-Max] $252 | $252 | $100,000 |
| Nov-1 | 15:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Six Swords [6-Max] $25.20 | $25.20 | $30,000 |
| Nov-1 | 16:00 | BoM #1 | Battle of Malta #1: King's Landing Opener | $110 | $200,000 |
| Nov-1 | 16:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Bounty Hunters HR $525 | $525 | $100,000 |
| Nov-1 | 16:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Bounty Hunters $52.50 | $52.50 | $70,000 |
| Nov-1 | 16:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Bounty Hunters Mini $5.25 | $5.25 | $15,000 |
| Nov-1 | 17:00 | BoM #2 | Battle of Malta #2: Gaming Employees Championship | $100 | - |
| Nov-1 | 18:00 | BoM #3 | Battle of Malta #3: Kings of Tallinn Main Event | $215 | $500,000 |
| Nov-1 | 18:30 | BoM Side | Battle of King's Bounty $3,150 | $3,150 | $100,000 |
| Nov-1 | 18:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Bounty Kings $315 | $315 | $150,000 |
| Nov-1 | 18:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Kings $31.50 | $31.50 | $75,000 |
| Nov-1 | 19:00 | BoM Side | NLHE Knights of the Nine HR [9-Max] $2,100 | $2,100 | $50,000 |
| Nov-1 | 19:00 | BoM Side | NLHE Knights of the Nine [9-Max] $210 | $210 | $30,000 |
| Nov-1 | 19:30 | BoM Side | PLO Crusaders HR $1,050 | $1,050 | $50,000 |
| Nov-1 | 19:30 | BoM Side | PLO Crusaders $125 | $125 | $15,000 |
| Nov-1 | 19:30 | BoM Side | PLO Crusaders Mini $12.50 | $12.50 | $5,000 |
| Nov-1 | 20:00 | BoM Side | Knights of the Nine Mini [9-Max] $15 | $15 | $25,000 |
| Nov-1 | 20:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Six Shooters HR $1,260 | $1,260 | $100,000 |
| Nov-1 | 20:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Six Shooters $126 | $126 | $250,000 |
| Nov-1 | 20:30 | BoM Side | Battle of Six Shooters Mini $12.60 | $12.60 | $10,000 |
| Nov-1 | 21:00 | BoM Side | NLHE DeepStack HR [Turbo] $500 | $500 | $40,000 |
| Nov-1 | 21:00 | BoM Side | NLHE DeepStack [Turbo] $50 | $50 | $15,000 |
| Nov-1 | 21:00 | BoM Side | DeepStack Mini [NLHE, Turbo] $5 | $5 | $5,000 |
| Nov-1 | 21:30 | BoM Side | Battle of PLO Vespers [Turbo] $210 | $210 | $10,000 |
| Nov-1 | 21:30 | BoM Side | Battle of PLO Vespers [Turbo] $21 | $21 | $2,000 |
| Nov-1 | 22:00 | BoM Side | NLHE the Last Stand [Hyper] $126 | $126 | $35,000 |
| Nov-5 | 18:00 | BoM #4 | Battle of Malta #4: Bounty for the Knight | $215 | $200,000 |
| Nov-7 | 18:00 | BoM #5 | Battle of Malta #5: Grandmaster High Roller | $1,200 | $250,000 |
| Nov-8 | 18:00 | BoM #6 | Battle of Malta #6: High Roller Championship | $5,250 | $2,000,000 |
| Nov-8 | 18:30 | BoM #7 | Battle of Malta #7: Siege of Malta [Day 2] | $215 | $2,000,000 |
| Nov-12 | 18:00 | BoM #8 | Battle of Malta #8: Bounty for the Queen | $315 | $300,000 |
| Nov-14 | 18:00 | BoM #9 | Battle of Malta #9: Bounty Poker Tour Special | $110 | $200,000 |
| Nov-15 | 18:00 | BoM #10 | Battle of Malta #10: Bounty for the King Royal Championship | $525 | $500,000 |
| Nov-15 | 18:30 | BoM #11 | Battle of Malta #11: Mini Main Event [Day 2] | $55 | $1,000,000 |
| Nov-19 | 18:00 | BoM #12 | Battle of Malta #12: St. Julian's Bounty Feast | $110 | $200,000 |
| Nov-21 | 18:00 | BoM #13 | Battle of Malta #13: Crusader's Cup | $215 | $250,000 |
| Nov-22 | 18:30 | BoM #14 | Battle of Malta #14: Main Event [Day 2] | $550 | $3,000,000 |
| Nov-22 | 20:00 | BoM #15 | Battle of Malta #15: THE REVENGE | $315 | $500,000 |
To be eligible, first join GGPoker and take advantage of their extensive Welcome Bonus and Honeymoon Offer for new players.
50 Battle of Malta Live Packages up for grabs
There will be a leaderboard starting November 1st where you can collect points and climb the ranks for one of 50 live BoM packages. You can collect points even if you bubble. But especially if you're in the money, even more if you final table and the most if you win the tournament. So obviously, the more events you play, the higher your chances are of winning a package. These will be awarded as below:
| 1st | €3,500 BoM Live Package | 5 Star hotel for 7 nights + ME & HR Ticket + Travel Expenses |
| 2nd | €2,500 BoM Live Package | 5 Star hotel for 7 nights + ME Ticket + Travel Expenses |
| 3rd | €1,900 BoM Live Package | 5 Star hotel for 4 nights + ME Ticket + Travel Expenses |
| 4th-10th | €1,700 BoM Live Package | 5 Star hotel for 4 nights + ME Ticket + Travel Expenses |
| 11th-50th | €800 BoM Live Package | ME Ticket + Travel Expenses |
