- Team “caught unprepared” after surging summer demand.
- Operator is one of the first to successfully run live events in the post-coronavirus summer.
- 888poker launches complete mobile overhaul and major platform upgrade.
888poker Unveils First Big Promotion of the Year: Millions Superstorm (January 2020)
Top line: “888poker has announced Millions Superstorm, a new promotion that culminates in a headlining $1 million-guaranteed Main Event.”
Key takeaways:
- The tournament is structured with 21 Day 1 flights, scheduled from March 1 to March 21.
- The tournament permits a $100 direct entry ($92 with an $8 operator fee), so it will need to attract almost 11,000 players to cover.
- Promotions will give away a total of $1 million in prizes, including freeroll entries, tickets to the Main Event, and cash prizes.
888 Schedules PKO Series for Early April (March 2020)
Top line: “888poker has revealed that the second edition of their progressive knockout (PKO) series will run in early April. It guarantees $1,095,000 across 33 events.”
Key takeaways:
- 888poker has revealed that the second edition of their Progressive Knockout (PKO) Series will run in early April.
- Events will include a narrow mix of freezeouts and rebuys, on 6-, 8- and 9-max tables.
- 888poker first introduced PKOs to its daily schedule in October 2018.
- PKO Series will run at the same time as the Irish Open Online Series.
888 Adds New Weeklong Dragon Series to Schedule (April 2020)
Top line: “888 has announced two new weekly tournaments under the banner Dragon Series. The week-long event, with combined guarantees of $150,000, represent a major step up for the operator in terms of weekly majors. It seeks to compete with similar investment from its primary competitors.”
Key takeaways:
- The week-long tournaments, with combined guarantees of $150,000, represent a major step up for the operator.
- These now compliment the operator’s regular Sunday Challenge, its existing weekly major.
- Unlike other weekly tournament series, which normally target Sunday, the Dragon Series final day takes place on Saturday.
888Poker Schedules $1.5 Million-Guaranteed XL Inferno (April 2020)
Top line: “888Poker has announced the schedule for XL Inferno, the second festival of the operator’s trio of annual tournaments under the XL Championship Series brand.”
Key takeaways:
- XL Inferno 2020 kicks off on May 14 and spans eleven days.
- Buy-ins range from $5.50 to $320 with tournaments guaranteeing five to six figures.
- The series culminates in three Main Events with guarantees of $20,000, $50,000 and $500,000.
888 Touts $25 million Worth of Cash Prizes to be Given Away in May (May 2020)
Top line: “$25 million will be given away in the month of May on 888poker, the operator has announced.”
Key takeaways:
- XL Inferno is 888’s flagship spring tournament series that sits within the annual XL Championship Series.
- 888 has also added in the week-long Dragon Series to its schedule which guarantees $150,000 per week.
888, Italian Poker Open Team Up for First-Ever IPO Online Series (May 2020)
Top line: “Online poker operator 888Poker has entered into an agreement with the Italian Poker Open (IPO) to run the first-ever IPO online series on 888poker’s ring-fenced Italian poker site.”
Key takeaways:
- 888Poker will host the Italian Poker Open (IPO) on its ring-fenced Italian room.
- More than €100,000 is guaranteed across eight IPO events, one a day from May 31 to June 7.
- It joins a wave of live tours that have moved online in the face of the pandemic.
888 Jumps into June with Freezeout Series, Plans Their Largest Tournament in History (June 2020)
Top line: “888poker has scheduled two large events to grab attention in June, as the industry enters into the usual quiet periods of summer.”
Key takeaways:
- WonderWorld will be operator’s largest ever tournament in terms of total number of entries.
- FO Series will be the operator’s first freezeout-only series.
- The online poker industry has largely shifted towards tournaments allowing multiple reentries in an event.
- MPN, PokerStars, partypoker and other shave tried freezeout-exclusive MTT series in the past.
888poker Kicks of Summer With Trails of Fortune Promotion (June 2020)
Top line: “888poker has launched a new promotion spanning the next nine weeks called Trails of Fortune.”
Key takeaways:
- 888poker has launched a new promotion spanning the next nine weeks called Trails of Fortune.
- Over $500,000 will be given away from now through to August, split across freerolls that will run daily and weekly.
- This is technically the first time the brand Trails of Fortune has been used by 888poker.
888 Reports “Particularly Encouraging” Poker Performance So Far This Year (June 2020)
Top line: “Online gaming giant 888 Holdings has reported average daily revenue year to date up 34% on the same period last year thanks to increased customer acquisition and a shift from live to online.”
Key takeaways:
- 888’s online poker traffic doubled from April to May.
- Today, traffic is back down to pre-pandemic levels, though it remains up 20% year-over-year.
- 888’s online poker revenue has been falling every year for the last eight.
- However, the second half of 2019 actually showed positive growth of 6.5%, the best-performing half in six years.
888poker Awarding Extra Rakeback to Tournament Players with Early Bird Promotion (July 2020)
Top line: “At a time when other major operators are running big-ticket tournament series, online poker room 888poker is finding its own way to keep its tournament players happy.”
Key takeaways:
- 888 has launched another new tournament promotion, “Early Bird Rakeback.”
- It gives players 10% rakeback on all the tournament buy-in fees if they register before the tournament starts.
- Many other operators have run similar Early Bird promotions to incentivize players to register early or play at off-peak times.
With Tallinn Festival, 888poker is Set to be First Online Operator to Run a Poker Event Live (August 2020)
Top line: “888poker has announced it will be going ahead with its Tallinn Festival 2020 stop in Estonia on September 1—less than three weeks away.”
Key takeaways:
- Prior to this, 888poker sponsored the Italian Poker Open that successfully played out live at the end of July.
- Online satellites are currently underway on the 888poker client that ultimately lead to packages for the $1,050 Main Event.
- To date, the only other live stop slated to go ahead and is accompanied by online satellites from a global operator is EPT Sochi.
888’s Millions Superstorm Promotion Returns with $8 Million Tournament Series (August 2020)
Top line: “888 has upped the stakes this September by bringing back its month-long Millions Superstorm promotion, giving away $1 million in prizes and running a special million-dollar Blast tournament.”
Key takeaways:
- 888 has upped the stakes for this September by bringing back its month-long Millions Superstorm promotion.
- It now comes with an $8 million-guaranteed tournament series—one of the biggest run by the operator in its history.
- The Millions series kicks off on September 10 and runs for over a month.
888 Overhauls Android Mobile Experience with Portrait Design, Multi-tabling Support (August 2020)
Top line: “In its largest upgrade to date, 888 has quietly overhauled its mobile app on Android, with a complete redesign featuring a portrait layout, multi-tabling support, a rethought lobby and a new replayer.”
Key takeaways:
- It is by far the largest update to its mobile product since it debuted eight years ago.
- The app has been redesigned, seemingly from the ground up, for being held in portrait.
- The changes are even more dramatic at the table.
- But perhaps most important is that the mobile client now supports multi-tabling.
- The new client feels smooth, responsive and engaging, and appears as technically sound as mobile apps elsewhere.
Health an “Absolute Priority” As 888poker Moves Forward with Tallinn, Sochi Live Poker Plans (August 2020)
Top line: “888poker has confirmed that both its Tallinn stop in Estonia and Sochi stop in Russia will run as scheduled in the coming weeks. The company stated that it is an “important milestone” in bringing live poker back to players during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Key takeaways:
- 888poker has confirmed that both its Tallinn stop in Estonia and Sochi stop in Russia will run as scheduled.
- “We are excited by the return of our live events and look forward to seeing our players around the same table once more.”
- Tallinn plays out in under two weeks’ time in Estonia and the Sochi Weekend stop is slated to run around the same time.
888poker Adds New Daily Tournaments with Focus on “Pure Poker” Formats (September 2020)
Top line: “888poker has announced a new set of daily tournaments, called The Classic, that all run as freezeouts.”
Key takeaways:
- 888poker has announced a new set of daily tournaments, called The Classic, that all run as freezeouts.
- The Classic runs five times a day across buy-in levels ranging from $5 to $100, with total guarantees of just over $10,000.
- The announcement comes following a successful freezeout-exclusive series run by 888 back in June.
888: “Overwhelming” Demand for Online Poker “Caught Us Slightly Unprepared” (October 2020)
Top line: “888 Holdings’ online poker vertical proved so popular during the height of the coronavirus lockdown that it was caught unprepared, and had to quickly upgrade its infrastructure in order to cope, the company stated.”
Key takeaways:
- “Poker was definitely the surprising vertical of the period, with many players shifting from physical poker games to online.”
- New customer acquisition for during the period more than doubled, up 103% on H1 2019.
- The industry as a whole enjoyed soaring online poker revenue during March and April, with most operators seeing traffic double.
- “So, it’s not as high as it was in the peak, but it’s definitely higher than what it was before the lockdown period.”
Pennsylvania Gaming Regulator Approves 888, But Online Poker Launch Still in Question (October 2020)
Top line: “On September 30, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) approved global online gaming company 888 Holdings to offer its services in the state. However, there has been no indication that a launch of online poker is imminent.”
Key takeaways:
- On September 30, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) approved global online gaming company 888.
- 888 and its US online poker partner WSOP.com did not respond to further inquiries regarding the possible launch of poker.
- 888 provides online poker services in the US in both B2B and B2C capacities as part of its All-American Poker Network (AAPN).
Online Poker Growth: An Interview with Elad Nir, VP Marketing and Head of 888poker (November 2020)
Top line: “Online poker and igaming provider 888 Holdings posted impressive financial results last month for the first half of 2020.”
Key takeaways:
- Online poker and igaming provider 888 Holdings posted impressive financial results last month for the first half of 2020.
- “Our strategy at 888poker was always to provide our players with a unique entertainment experience coupled with engaging promotions.”
- With the new 888poker app, we took that player-centric philosophy and integrated it throughout the platform.”
- “888poker is on a strong growth trajectory and we have a very specific road map to make sure the business stays on track.”
Online Poker Product at 888: An Interview with Moran Fermon, Head of Poker Product (December 2020)
Top line: “Over the last two years, 888poker has been revamping its entire online poker experience. Starting with new desktop tables launched back in 2018, the operator has since rolled out a dramatic upgrade to the entire desktop software and has launched next-gen, portrait-first mobile apps across all…”
Key takeaways:
- “The online entertainment industry is way more sophisticated than it was with a forever growing range of entertaining content.”
- “When you look at our new platform, the emphasis is really on a fun and engaging poker experience.”
- “Now that our new poker platform is live … we will focus our resources on additional enhancements.”
- “Real names on the table is a step in the right direction for the poker industry.”
888poker Finishes 2020’s XL Championships with New Winter Series (December 2020)
Top line: “888poker has announced XL Winter Series, a new brand within their XL Championships collection, to run from December 10 to 20.”
Key takeaways:
- 888poker has announced XL Winter Series, a new brand within their XL Championship Series collection.
- The series will complete the usual trio of XL series held each year, having skipped Eclipse in autumn.
- Normally, the fall would bring XL Eclipse, the final in the XL Championships trio; instead, it ran Millions Superstorm.
