- Fact, four Side Events were added on for the final Sunday, bringing the total series guarantee to almost $52 million.
- Once again it was the High tier that struggled: every High weekly heat, and the Grand Final, missed their marks.
- Since Week 1, it was clear that the operator had, in some spots, bitten off more than it could chew.
- Stadium Series will go down in history as one of the costliest PokerStars, or perhaps anyone, has ever run.
- In total, $55.5 million was paid out in prize money, and the series attracted over 700,000 entries.
- 48 events, or 45% of the schedule, missed guarantees.
Top brass at PokerStars will likely breathe a little easier today, with its four-week-long Stadium Series finally in the rear-view mirror.
The summer festival was ambitious. The operator never runs series that last a full month. The average event guarantee of almost $500,000 was higher than WCOOP and even High Roller Series. Its stripped-back schedule meant little overlap between events. It has never run a series of this scale in summer before, and it came off the back of a record-setting $135 million SCOOP and $25 million Summer Series, with barely a week between each.
Since Week 1, it was clear that the operator had, in some spots, bitten off more than it could chew. There were a few big misses in the early events, most notably in the high tier—certainly not a common occurrence in a PokerStars series, which traditionally smashes through guarantees by 50% without breaking a sweat.
By Week 2, the gaps were quite glaring, with the operator racking up almost $1 million in overlays. That week was a top-line net loss for the operator, with overlays outstripping rake collected.
In Week 3, things were getting back on an even keel. While the majority of events were still missing guarantees, the gaps were narrowing.
The final week, which has just concluded, was, by many metrics, its most successful of the series. The majority of events covered their guarantees. Total overlays amounted to half a million dollars; still high, but given that it guaranteed more than $20 million, the operator avoided any catastrophic misses.
Still, Stadium Series will go down in history as one of the costliest PokerStars, or perhaps anyone, has ever run, with over $2 million in overlays for a series that was supported by an additional $2 million in ticket giveaways.
But it averted what could have been much higher losses, and it could well be seen as a necessity in today’s climate to stay apace with the competition—GG WSOP 2020 and partypoker WPT WOC, in many respects even more ambitious, are also running this summer.
To the operator’s credit, no changes or adjustments were made to the schedule, despite overlays mounting. It ran as planned: no guarantees were changed; structures went unaltered. In fact, four Side Events were added on for the final Sunday, bringing the total series guarantee to almost $52 million.
