PokerStars’ flagship online tournament series is just a day away as the 18th installment of the Spring Championship of Online Poker kicks off on Sunday, March 1.
Taking place over 25 days, this year’s SCOOP, which is running much earlier than its usual slot, features 136 numbered events and $45 million in guarantees. As has long been the case, nearly every event is split into three buy-in tiers, which brings the total number of individual tournaments to more than 400. In pure volume, this is the biggest SCOOP ever hosted.
Buy-ins range from $5.50 to $15,000, ensuring the series serves as a proving ground for players at every bankroll level.
Every tournament winner will receive a trophy, and an additional one will go to the overall leaderboard champion. That takes the total number of trophies to 401, a figure that likely stands as a record for the most tangible prizes awarded in a single online poker series.
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“SCOOP is where greatness isn’t given, it’s earned,” said Steve Clarricoats, Associate Director of Poker Operations at PokerStars. “Every title represents weeks of preparation, relentless competition and beating the toughest fields in online poker. That’s what makes a SCOOP win so special.”
A Packed Three-Week Lineup
The series begins with its traditional Kickoff event, offered at $5.50, $55, and $530 buy-ins, before transitioning into a set of Mystery Warm-Up tournaments. The iconic Sunday Million also makes a return at its classic $215 price point. This edition will run as a PKO and will be joined by $55 and $1,050 versions, combining for $600,000 in guaranteed prize money.
Across the full schedule, players will find a broad mix of formats, including No-Limit Hold’em, PLO, 8-Game, Mystery Bounty events, Turbo structures, and Deep Stack tournaments. The NLHE Main Events on March 22 will combine for $5.5 million in guarantees, followed by $550,000 across the PLO Main Events on March 23.
The Sunday Million appears again on March 8 in its regular $109 PKO format, before wrapping up on March 15 with a $530 non-bounty edition.
The three-tiered No-Limit Hold’em Main Events are back at $109, $1,050, and $5,200 buy-ins, combining for $5.5 million in guaranteed prize money. In addition, the PLO Main Events will award a total of $550,000 in guarantees.
Other than Hold’em, the schedule once again spans a wide range of variants, including multiple Omaha formats, 8-Game, HORSE, 2-7 Triple Draw, 2-7 Single Draw, Badugi, Stud, Razz, and Stud Hi/Lo, maintaining one of the broadest mixed-game offerings in the dot-com market.
While many operators lean on large multi-flight structures to inflate headline numbers, PokerStars has largely stuck to single-flight tournaments. Out of roughly 400 events, only one uses a traditional flight format. The rest are standalone tournaments, many of which play out across two days rather than through multiple starting flights. Re-entry policies remain measured, with most events allowing between one and five re-entries. Only three tournaments offer unlimited re-entries, and three run as freezeouts.
The SCOOP schedule will also feature a range of supporting tournaments and special SCOOP-branded editions running alongside the numbered events.
PokerStars ambassadors will once again be part of the grind, streaming their runs throughout the series. Among them is Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg, who continues his pursuit of a maiden SCOOP title after coming close in previous editions.
Promotions Power the Grind
If the trophy count underlines the scale of the schedule, the promotional campaign reinforces PokerStars’ commitment to the festival.
The build-up began with the SCOOP Warm-Up series, which carried $10 million in guarantees. Alongside it ran the Ticket Machine raffle, distributing $200,000 worth of Main Event tickets between February 1 and 12.
SCOOP Vault will award $450,000 in SCOOP tickets, allowing players to unlock rewards by opting in, playing real-money games, and generating rake. The more milestones a player reaches, the better the chances of securing higher-value entries.
The $100,000 Player of the Series leaderboard also returns, with $20,000 reserved for the overall winner.
Last year’s Lucky Dip promotion makes a comeback as well, giving away $500,000 in SCOOP tickets. Each time a player enters a SCOOP event, they trigger a random draw with the possibility of winning another entry worth up to $5,200.
Until February 28, the daily SCOOP Stars Spinner Prize Wheel will add another incentive layer. Players who play at least one real-money hand per day and generate a minimum of $0.01 in rake can spin for Power Path tickets.
Players can qualify for SCOOP events through satellites starting at just $0.55. The $55 Power Path Express SCOOP Edition on March 1 will award more than $200,000 in SCOOP Power Passes and Main Event tickets.
Why SCOOP Guarantees Are Lower This Year
While the structure, promotions, and trophy count point to an expansive festival, total guarantees for SCOOP 2026 are set at $45 million, down from the heights seen in earlier editions.
At first glance, the trimmed headline guarantees may raise eyebrows. However, the reduction reflects longer-term changes in PokerStars’ global footprint rather than a scaled-back approach to the series itself.
Over the past five years, the operator has exited numerous jurisdictions across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Those withdrawals include historically high-traffic markets such as Russia, the Netherlands, Ontario (Canada’s largest province), Norway, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Poland, and Serbia, along with several Asian countries that were once part of its network.
Taken together, these departures are estimated to have reduced the operator’s dot-com player pool by approximately 20–25%. The exits have been driven by regulatory shifts, tighter local frameworks, a broader move away from grey markets, and a strategic focus on regulated jurisdictions under parent company Flutter.
Against that backdrop, SCOOP 2026 presents a leaner but still ambitious edition defined less by headline guarantees and more by volume, variety, and layered promotions.
