- Schedule maintains brand prestige with a limited set of tournaments with a restricted number of re-entries.
- Two tournaments have $10 million prize pools—the Main Event, and the High Roller.
- 29 Championship tournaments total just over $50 million in guarantees.
- It overlaps exactly with the World Series of Poker Online that plays out on competing GGPoker.
- The operator used it with the first ever WPT Online Series back in May that paid out north of $50 million.
WPT’s upcoming World Online Championships on partypoker will guarantee $100 million across the series, the company revealed last Friday.
The announcement confirms an earlier report on PRO earlier this month, where the $100 million figure was leaked by GVC spokesperson Rob Yong on a partypoker podcast.
The schedule is focused on maintaining the prestige of the brand, with a limited set of tournaments with a restricted number of re-entries and no phased events.
“This is a true series for the players across the board,” said Hermance Blum, WPT VP Europe. “Limited re-entries, buy-ins at all levels, and five ways to become a WPT Champion are all highlights of the first-ever WPT World Online Championships continue to deliver the live experience online.”
A schedule for 12 separate championship events has been released. All but two of the events will be available across three separate buy-ins, with a Micro, Mini and Main tier. Buy-ins are $33 at the low end, $320 at the mid-level, and between $1100 and $3200 in the high.
There are two standalone events: #10, a High Roller, and #11, a Super High Roller with a $102,000 buy-in. This is thought to be the highest buy-in ever spread online, matching the record-holding WCOOP 2016 Super Highroller.
Most of the tournaments have six- or seven-figure guarantees. Two have $10 million prize pools—the Main Event, and the High Roller. Two more have $5 million guarantees, and four guarantee $3 million.
The average guarantee per tournament is just over $1.8 million. With all tournaments allowing a maximum of one re-entry, and only a few with multiple Day 1s, makes the Championships perhaps the most prestigious series ever held online.
However, these 29 Championship tournaments total just over $50 million in guarantees, and a link to the full schedule currently lists no more events, so it is not immediately clear what other events will make up the $100 million headline guarantee.
A blog post lists two more non-Championship tournaments—a Poker Industry Invitational, and a Shooting Stars charity event. The press release states that a full schedule for the series will be announced at a later date.
