The third edition of WSOP Paradise is drawing to a close, with the poker world now waiting to see who will emerge as the winner of the Super Main Event, a title that comes with a $10 million payday for the champion.
That said, as the series wraps up, it is worth stepping back to examine how much money the festival has paid out overall, something we routinely do with every major WSOP bracelet series.
Last year’s WSOP Paradise awarded a total of $160 million across 15 bracelet events. This year has gone well beyond that benchmark, with total prize money reaching $201.8 million spread over the same 15 bracelets, translating into a record average prize pool of $13.5 million per event.
So how much did the WSOP take home this year? The answer is less than in the previous edition, with approximately $12 million collected through staff and administrative fees. Last year, WSOP officials made over $13 million.
(Note: The fees from only the 15 bracelet events are included. WSOP also earned from side events, satellites, and cash games held during the series.)
The reduction is largely due to the inclusion of half a dozen Triton events, for which WSOP and GGPoker did not charge any admin fees. In addition, the average buy-in declined this year, driven mainly by the absence of the $1 million buy-in tournament.
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WSOP Paradise 2025 By the Numbers:
- Bracelet Events: 15
- Prize Pool Awarded Excluding Admin Fees: $201.8M
- Avg Prize Pool: $13.45M
- Main Event Prize Pool: $72.2M
- Total Entries: 8,015
- Total Fee Collected: $12M+
Looking at the bigger picture, however, a $200 million total prize pool is remarkable considering the schedule featured only 15 bracelet events. This figure also excludes the prize pools generated by side events and cash games running alongside the series.
A large share of that $200 million total can be attributed to a single marquee tournament, as the Super Main Event more than delivered. Last year, the same event carried a $50 million guarantee that fell short, resulting in an overlay of roughly $550,000. Despite that outcome, organizers increased the guarantee this year to $60 million, the largest guarantee ever attached to a poker tournament.
This time, there was no overlay at all. In fact, saying there was no overlay barely captures the scale of the result. The tournament not only cleared the $60 million guarantee but exceeded it by an additional $12 million. The event required 2,400 entries to break even, but ultimately attracted 2,891 entries, generating a massive $72,275,000 prize pool. That made it the largest WSOP Main Event held outside Las Vegas and the eighth-largest tournament in poker history.
From this single event, WSOP officials collected $2.8 million in rake along with another $2.1 million in administrative fees, bringing total fees from the tournament to more than $5 million.
To put the overall scale into perspective, WSOP Paradise 2025 is larger than every WSOP Las Vegas series up to and including 2011, as well as the 2013 edition. This is largely driven by high buy-ins, with an average exceeding $68,000 per tournament, but the achievement remains striking nonetheless.
WSOP Paradise History
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prize Pool Awarded (Minus Admin Fee) | $70,019,540 | $160,596,175 | $201,836,560 |
| Combined Entrants | 17,267 | 9,494 | 8,015 |
| Avg Buy-in | $16,453 | $103,904 | $68,000+ |
| Main Event Prize Pool | 15,050,000 | $50,000,000 | $72,275,000 |
| Overlay | $188,000 | $1,017,500 | - |
| Total Fee Collected | $5,470,570 | $13,011,175 | $12,000,000+ |
For further context, compare this with the traditional summer WSOP in Las Vegas, which paid out $481.7 million across 100 live bracelet events. WSOP Paradise needed only 15 bracelet events to cross the $200 million mark. That said, the comparison is not entirely straightforward. In terms of participation, WSOP Paradise 2025 attracted just 8,015 total entries, while the Las Vegas series drew close to 250,000 entries over the course of the summer.
WSOP 2025 Las Vegas vs Bahamas
| Las Vegas | Bahamas | |
|---|---|---|
| No. of Bracelets | 100 | 15 |
| Prize Pool Awarded | $481.7M | $201.8M |
| Avg Prize Pool | $4.81M | $13.45M |
| Total Entries | 246,960 | 8,015 |
| Avg Buy-in | $10,960 | $68,000+ |
| Total Fee Collected | $47M | $12M+ |
It will be worth watching how WSOP Paradise shapes up next year. WSOP has already locked in the dates for WSOP Paradise 2026, which will mark the fourth edition of the series and run from December 1 to 18, 2026, reflecting a modestly expanded schedule compared with earlier editions, while the WSOP 2026 Las Vegas series is set for May 26 to July 15, 2026.
