WPT Global Starts Its First Full Year of Operations Big
The upstart new operator surprised the online poker world early in 2022. The new brand seemed to come out of nowhere but gained lots of exposure from big games and big names.
As 2023 begins, there is a new operator on the global online poker market – WPT Global. The new brand which partners with one of the biggest names in live tournament poker, the World Poker Tour (WPT), came online in 2022 with little fanfare leading up to its launch.
WPT Global hit the ground in early 2022 but started its operations with little fanfare. Some of the first industry noticed started in April, and PokerListings announced a partnership with the new entity as it began to grow and make big plans.
Among the biggest plans was a massive introductory tournament, the $1 for $1 Million tournament. With $1 million guaranteed, the game was always going to be a massive giveaway with huge overlay, as the operator didn’t even come close to scheduling enough starting flights to hit the guarantee. Even with massive turnout for all the flights, it was always certain that there would be more than $800k in overlay for the game, because that was how it was designed.
That wasn’t the only big games on WPT Global in 2022. Despite being the first year of operation, the partnership with one of the most recognizable brands in live poker, WPT, gave it a lot of exposure this year, and set up the year-end WPT World Championship. Dozens of tickets to the massive $15 million guaranteed Main Event were awarded on WPT Global leading up to the event, with satellite games running on the client, and ambassadors running giveaways on Twitch and Social media. In the end, that live series nearly doubled the Main Event Guarantee and ended with a very successful run.
$1 for $1 Million
WPT Global hit the poker world with a bang with what was designed, from the get-go, to be a massive giveaway of money to its player pool. While there were many Day 1 flights for the huge $1 for $1 Million game that began during the operator’s Summer Festival and culminated in early October with the final days of action.
Regardless of the number of starting flights, the $1 million guarantee was always a bit of a pipe dream, with a million entries required to hit it. That made it pretty clear from the outset that the point of the game wasn’t to hit the guarantee but rather to hand out some cash to players.
WPT World Championship
The highlight of the year for WPT Global was a huge satellite push to the WPT World Championship at the Wynn in Las Vegas in December. The operator helped many players win their way to the Championship for a fraction of the $10k Main Event buy-in.
The big live series had $15 million guaranteed for the Main Event, and in the end the game crushed that promise with more than $29 million in total prizes. Canadian Eliot Hudon capped off an amazing series for Canucks with his title marking the fourth trophy that went north of the border.
Hudon bagged $4.1 million for his win, the biggest score from the series by far. However, he joined three other Canadians taking home Wynn-shaped hardware.
- Eliot Hudon – Main Event Winner, $4.1 Million
- Sergio Grosso – Seniors Winner, $130,806
- Lina Niu – Ladies Winner, $105,136
- Constantinos Psallidas – $600 NLH Winner, $27,179
Among the other big winner from the live series was Peter Cross from Los Angeles. He took down the $3000 NLH for a prize of more than $400k in a game that didn’t just break the guarantee, but destroyed it. With $500k, guaranteed, the game ended up with an astonishing $2,494,250 for nearly 5x the promise.
WPT Global Ambassadors Hand Out Tickets
While there were many players who made their way to the Wynn through the satellite tree that WPT Global ran in the lead-up to the big live festival, there were some players who got there through the goodwill and largesse of WPT Global ambassadors.
One example was prominent vlogger Andrew Neeme. With a contest that challenged his Twitter followers to define what poker meant to them in 280 characters or less, US Navy Veteran LoriAnn Persinger got herself a free $10,400 seat from the vlogger, and promptly turned that into a 30th place finish in the Main worth $119,300.
WPT Winter Festival Closes to Start 2023
As 2023 dawns for the newest major online poker site in the global market, the stellar opening year for WPT Global bodes well for 2023. The WPT Winter Festival runs its final few events as the new year begins. The final game in the series, the $220 WPT Closer with $150,000 guaranteed closes the series out on Jan 3, which is also when Day 2 of the $1 million guaranteed Main Event plays out with $174,505 up top for the winner.
With 2022 now in the books, and the first full year of operations in front of it, WPT Global has very quickly put itself in the top-tier of online poker operators. With great online poker value, combined with lots of chances to play your way into WPT-branded live poker events, it’s easy to see WPT Global taking the online poker world by storm in 2023.
