- 888poker’s 2021 chronicle: Continued poker growth, new poker 8 software deployment in the Southern European and US markets, investment on Twitch platform, and increased guarantees in tournament series are some of the highlights of 888poker’s journey in 2021.
888poker is Dropping Gifts Every Ten Seconds as Made To Play Push Continues (January 2021)
Top line: “888poker has announced its first new promotion for 2021, Turbo Drops.”
Key takeaways:
- Using the random gift drop mechanism, depositing players active at real money tables are rewarded every ten seconds at eligible games as “Made to Play” celebrations continue into 2021.
- The “Made To Play” brand covers an umbrella campaign the operator is using to promote the new client, Poker 8.
- Prizes up to $1,000 will drop every ten seconds on cash games, BLAST, SNAP, and at MTTs tables.
888 Anticipates US Network Expansion in 2021 as Partnership with WSOP Extended (January 2021)
Top line: “888 Holdings and Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) have entered into a multi-year extension of their existing partnership in the US market, the pair revealed Tuesday. The agreement cements 888’s position as a leading online poker provider in the US.”
Key takeaways:
- Under the extended partnership, 888 will deploy its new Poker 8 desktop and mobile client for the WSOP.
- The All-American Poker Network (AAPN) combines cash game and tournament traffic of Delaware with Nevada and New Jersey.
- Prime candidates for 888’s expansion in the US are the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
- It may be that the operator is waiting for progress on the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) first before committing.
888poker Launches 24/7 Freerolls Festival With More Than $100,000 in Prizes (February 2021)
Top line: “888poker has launched the second promotion in 2021 to continue the “Made to Play” campaign. From February 10 until March 2, players can win more than $100,000 in prizes via the 24/7 Freerolls Festival.”
Key takeaways:
- It follows hot on the heels of Turbo Drops and represents yet another piece of the “Made To Play” umbrella campaign, 888poker’s marketing efforts to promote the fully revamped Poker 8 client which rolled out on the global pool at the end of 2020 for mobile and desktop.
- Players can participate in three different types of “Made To Celebrate” freerolls throughout the three-week period.
- Freebie Freerolls take place several times a day and the prize pools listed in the client range between $200 and $2,000. A weekly “Freebie,” scheduled for Sundays boasts a larger prize pool of $5,000.
888 Overhauls Tournament Schedule with $500,000 More in Guarantees Every Week (February 2021)
Top line: “888poker has unveiled a completely reorganized weekly tournament scheduled, called New Tournament Collection.”
Key takeaways:
- The set of events includes The Rumble, a daily PKO; The Dash and The Mayhem, turbo events; The Voyage, a deep-stacked event; The Classic, a freezeout; and The Big Shot, the day’s highlight.
- There are three Daily Big Shot events, with guarantees of $22, $55, and $109, all kicking off at the sociable 6 pm to 7 pm period.
- Things kick up on Sunday with four separate Big Shot tournaments, the flagships of the week.
888 Completes Full Deployment of Poker 8 in European Segregated Markets with New Lobby Look (March 2021)
Top line: “888 has deployed its new online poker lobby in the operator’s two European segregated markets. All 888’s poker rooms outside the US now have the full Poker 8 experience.”
Key takeaways:
- The new lobby represents a drastic overhaul, replacing the almost decade-old layout with a much more modern look and feel.
- It brings it in line with 888poker’s global dot-com client, which underwent a similar change in November last year.
- Along with the new lobby look, the operator has also unveiled the new tournament collection featuring six new tournaments.
888poker Teams Up With WPTDeepStacks to Host Online Festival Next Month (March 2021)
Top line: “The World Poker Tour has announced a partnership with 888poker to host an online edition of the WPTDeepStacks from April 18 to 26.”
Key takeaways:
- There will be three simultaneous series across the 888 European and global networks, with more than $3 million in guaranteed prize pools.
- It is the first time that the three networks of 888poker will be synced for a major online festival.
- It is also one of the rare occasions that 888 has worked with a live operator to bring a series entirely online.
- “WPTDeepStacks and 888poker are thrilled to partner online for this incredible series for the entire 888poker network.”
888 Heralds New Era for its Online Poker Product as Revenue Jumps Almost 50% (March 2021)
Top line: “Online poker revenue at 888 Holdings jumped 47.8% in 2020, the operator revealed in its full-year financial report last year. It is one of the best annual growth rates in poker reported in its 15-year financial history.”
Key takeaways:
- It is one of the best annual growth rates in poker reported in its 15-year financial history.
- “We saw a temporary jump during April and May, which was stabilized in June before seeing structural improvement in the second half.”
- While online poker made up just 7.7% of the group’s B2C revenue last year, it received outsized attention in last week’s investors’ call.
- Six months ago, it deployed the new mobile client upgrade, a huge step up for the operator.
- “This showcases the fresh and modern approach that we brought to the world of online poker.”
888poker Introduces New Leaderboards for Blast Lottery Sit and Gos (April 2021)
Top line: “888poker has become the latest online poker operator to introduce a daily leaderboard for its jackpot Sit and Go variant, Blast.”
Key takeaways:
- Having kicked off last Friday, the daily Blast leaderboards promotion is slated to run for two months.
- Players have the opportunity to win $5000 every day.
- This boost for the jackpot variant comes only a few days after the $1 million jackpot was hit in a $100 Blast SNG.
- There are four daily leaderboards available, of which three will count the first ten Blast SNG every day and one will count the first 30 Blast SNG to determine the final position.
888 and WPTDeepStacks London Online Series Exceeds Expectations (April 2021)
Top line: “The inaugural 888 WPT Deepstacks London Online Series has concluded, paying out $2,200,000 in prize money.”
Key takeaways:
- The series took place concurrently on 888’s global market as well as on its combined Portugal and Spain network, and the segregated Italian online poker room, under the guise of WPTDS Iberia Online and WPTDS Italy Online.
- For the global player pool, the online tournament series played out over a week, featuring 16 scheduled events and had $2 million in guarantees — which it easily surpassed.
- The series attracted 8,735 entries. The Main Event, which guaranteed $1 million attracted 973 unique players who rebought 114 times, creating a $1,087,000 prize pool.
888 Reports Continual Poker Growth in Q1 2021, Confirms US Expansion in “Next Couple of Months” (May 2021)
Top line: “888 has reported that online poker revenue in the first quarter of 2021 reached $14.7 million, representing growth of 13% year-over-year and 10% in constant currency.”
Key takeaways:
- The operator touted its new Poker 8 platform and Made to Play marketing campaign as helping to boost the online poker platform, as it comes off the back of a record 2020 that saw poker revenue jump almost 50%.
- The operator has also confirmed that it still expects to launch online poker with its partner Caesars, under the World Series of Poker (WSOP) brand, in both Michigan and Pennsylvania in the first half of 2021.
- This confirms an exclusive report from pokerfuse in February that 888 was readying a launch for WSOP Pennsylvania and Michigan. The operator hopes to go live on day 1 with its new Poker 8 platform.
888 Reveals Schedule for First XL Series of 2021 (May 2021)
Top line: “888 has announced it will run the newly-minted XL Spring Series in the dot-com market — on its Italian segregated site and its Spanish and Portuguese shared liquidity network concurrently at the end of this month.”
Key takeaways:
- The dot-com series will guarantee $1 million in prize money across 25 events and the segregated EU markets will guarantee €300,000 across 26 events.
- The new series replaces XL Inferno that usually runs in the May slot.
- It will run in a relatively empty slot — all the major spring tournaments have wrapped up already.
Yaniv Sherman on 888’s Poker Progress in the United States: Exclusive Interview (May 2021)
Top line: “When pokerfuse spoke with Yaniv Sherman, 888 Holdings’ Senior Vice President and Head of US, in February of this year, it felt like the US online poker market was poised for transformation.”
Key takeaways:
- With the competition making aggressive moves into the US online poker market, PRO catches up with 888 Holdings’ Senior Vice President and Head of US to get his take on the company’s progress in Michigan and Pennsylvania, expectations for shared liquidity, hopes for new US states, and more.
- “[W]e hope that Pennsylvania and Michigan would join the existing poker compact. If that’s the case, perhaps, we’re attempting to launch them pretty much concurrently. If not, we will just have to stagger them.”
- “I would say that in 2022, at the latest, we’ll be looking to open additional poker brands in the marketplace.”
- “What we are trying to do — not very successfully so far — is to educate policymakers of the differences between poker and casino.”
- “It’s a matter of when, rather than if. I think of West Virginia, they’re out there, we start rolling out 888poker, we’ll launch there at some point in time”
888 Adds New $5 Sunday Tournament with Extra First Place Prize (May 2021)
Top line: “888poker has added a new regular Sunday tournament to its schedule, as it continues its casual player-friendly Made to Play marketing drive.”
Key takeaways:
- Following the introduction of the entirely revamped Poker 8 desktop client, the operator unleashed the Made to Play campaign in celebration of its new mobile app.
- The Made to Amaze prize is given away to the winner on top of the cash prize earned in the tournament.
- For this week’s edition, the operator will give away $1000 for every win made by their chosen national team during UEFA Euro 2020.
New Splash Party Promotion From 888 To Give Away $1 Million Via Freerolls (June 2021)
Top line: “888poker has announced Splash Party, a new promotion that promises to give away $1 million over the course of summer.”
Key takeaways:
- $1 million will be given away via 888poker’s Splash Party promotion, a new water-park-themed freeroll promotion that will run across the poker, sports, and casino client until September — making it one of 888’s biggest summer giveaways to date.
- Players must complete missions to win tickets into the aqua-themed freerolls, that are running throughout the week.
- 888 traditionally runs 90-day promotions over the summer months, using the same mechanics as seen in the Splash Party promotion.
- Last year 888 ran the Trail of Fortune promotion that gave away $500,000 in prize money.
888poker Creates StreamTeam To Reinvigorate Their Twitch Channel (July 2021)
Top line: “888poker has revealed details surrounding its new StreamTeam, a co-op of poker streamers who will appear on 888’s new Twitch channel, 888pokerTV.”
Key takeaways:
- The creation of the StreamTeam marks the relaunch of the 888PokerTV Twitch channel and will be a place where 888 host special activities for the Twitch community and run special giveaways and freerolls.
- The relaunch of 888pokerTV with the StreamTeam will mark renewed efforts by the operator to build their audience onto the go-to streaming platform.
- “We believe in the power of this platform to increase brand exposure and engagement, It’s the perfect alignment between 888poker, an online stream team, and their Twitch poker communities,” 888 told PRO.
888’s Micro-Stakes Online Tournament Series ChampionChip Returns (July 2021)
Top line: “The micro-stakes online tournament series ChampionChip, from 888poker will get underway in early August, and runs with a guarantee seven times bigger than previous editions, at $735,000.”
Key takeaways:
- This is the fourth time the micro-stakes series has run in the summer spot, despite not running last year.
- 888 has made a significant investment into the brand this time around, as the guarantee is 7 times bigger than any previous edition.
- The Main Event has $500,000 in guarantees and multiple Day 1s will run throughout the tournament.
- The ChampionChip series was created back in 2016 to coincide with the Olympics and this year it goes back to its Olympic-themed roots, as is reflected in the marketing language used in the accompanying promotional video.
888poker LIVE Returns to Bucharest in August 2021 (July 2021)
Top line: “Global online poker operator 888poker will continue to resume its live poker activities in August 2021.”
Key takeaways:
- From August 16 to 22, the popular mid-stakes circuit 888poker LIVE returns to Bucharest.
- The event will be hosted in cooperation with PokerFest, which runs all major live poker tournaments in Romania.
- The festival consists of 15 individual events with buy-ins ranging between €45 and €1,400.
- The crown jewel of the schedule is the €888 Main Event, which runs from August 18 to 22. It features three starting days and the winner will receive an 888Live package on top of the prize money.
888Poker Offers Online Satellites for Live Events in Las Vegas (August 2021)
Top line: “Leading online poker operator 888poker has announced the Road to Las Vegas 2021 promotion, which will give away $13,000 packages for a trip to Las Vegas. The satellites are already running in the global client and the promotion will continue to run until October 17, 2021.”
Key takeaways:
- The $13,000 Vegas package includes a tournament buy-in worth $10,000, $1,500 for accommodation, $1,500 for travel & expenses, and an 888poker LIVE kit. All qualifiers are expected to wear the 888poker patch for the entire duration of the target tournament.
- While the promotion doesn’t make any mention of the WSOP brand, it refers to an event that “will be held at the Rio Hotel and Casino in the poker area (Convention Centre).
- Until last year, 888 was the official event partner of the World Series of Poker and offered WSOP Main Event packages since 2014.
888poker Announces First Seven-Figure Guaranteed Tournament of this Year (September 2021)
Top line: “888poker has announced its biggest tournament of the year and it comes with a $1 million-guaranteed prize pool.”
Key takeaways:
- The event billed as $1M Big Shot runs throughout the month of September featuring a buy-in of $109.
- As has now become a tradition with high-profile events, the event is structured with multiple Day 1 flights running daily, all feeding into the tournament’s Day 2 that runs on September 27.
- The last time, the operator ran a $1 million guaranteed tournament was in October 2020.
For The First Time in Two Years, 888poker Expands Ambassador Roster (September 2021)
Top line: “888poker has announced that two new poker pros have joined the Ambassador and StreamTeam roster. The American Poker Pro Samantha Abernathy joins as Brand Ambassador and Canadian Jordan Banfield bolsters the StreamTeam online stable.”
Key takeaways:
- Abernathy is well known to the poker community, having made her breakthrough in 2016 at the Aussie Millions Main Event.
- Banfield in comparison is a relative unknown in the poker community. However, he has over 9,000 followers on Twitch which, considering he only launched the channel in August 2020, shows promising growth.
- The signing of both players indicates 888’s investment into both its Twitch channel, where the StreamTeam’s main goal is to grow its audiences and the wider 888 brand. Abernathy will be expected to represent 888 in the live poker arena.
888 Set To Run Its Biggest XL Online Tournament Series in Three Years (October 2021)
Top line: “888 has announced it will be running its XL Autumn Series later this month in the dot-com market with guarantees of $2 million spread over 44 events.”
Key takeaways:
- XL Autumn marks the first time since 2018 that 888 has grown the overall guarantee on an XL-branded online tournament series.
- It is the second online tournament series under the XL brand to run from the 888 this year. Another XL Series can be expected to run in December as Winter Series.
- The series will run in a relatively empty slot, with only the Bounty Builder Series from PokerStars overlapping by two days.
888 Launches Prize Drop Promotion Under New “Sir Prize” Moniker (October 2021)
Top line: “888poker has revealed a new marketing promotional campaign “Sir Prize,” riffing of the word surprise, with prizes dropped at random for the next three months at the tables.”
Key takeaways:
- 888 will give away $1 million during the promotion period across freerolls, prize drops, and new depositor bonuses.
- The mechanics of the promotion will work similarly to those in the past, but with more emphasis on incentives for new depositors.
- The Sir Prize promotion follows on from the Splash Party promo that ran for three months over the summer.
- During the Sir Prize promotional period, 888 will also run their online tournament series XL Autumn.
888poker Teams Up with Grosvenor Casinos for 888pokerLIVE Weekend (October 2021)
Top line: “Global online poker operator 888 has struck a deal with Grosvenor Casinos, one of the UK’s leading casino venues. The duo has teamed up to host 888’s live poker event called 888pokerLIVE Weekend in London.”
Key takeaways:
- The 888pokerLIVE Weekend will be held at The Vic’s poker room — London’s longest-running poker venue from October 28 spanning four days.
- The festival will be piloted by the 888Live London Weekend Main Event, featuring an entry fee of £444 ($600) that promises £50,000 in prize money.
- 888poker is running qualifiers and direct satellites to the Main starting for as little as one cent. There is also a freeroll scheduled on October 21 guaranteeing 25 seats to the $600 event.
- The Grosvenor Victoria Casino is one of the UK’s largest casino brands and part of Rank Group with a chain of over 50 casinos spread across the nation.
888poker’s Bots Crackdown: 85 Accounts Closed, $100,000 Returned to Thousands of Players (November 2021)
Top line: “888 Holding’s online poker room 888poker has announced that it has shut 85 fraudulent accounts caught using artificial intelligence software at its online poker room.”
Key takeaways:
- From these banned accounts, the operator recovered nearly $100,000 from 85 bot accounts and compensated over 4000 players in October. On average, it equates to over $1150 per account.
- This is thought to be the first time that 888, operating for nearly two decades, has publicly revealed statistics on accounts closed or the total amount seized.
- 888 has committed to monitoring the fraudulent bot activities on a monthly basis going forward joining the recent trend of increased transparency among operators.
- “We are proud of our continued progress in tackling bots that use software to create an unfair advantage over real-life players,” said Amit Berkovich, Head of 888poker.
888poker’s WPTDeepStacks London Online Series Generates Over $3.4 Million in Prize Money (December 2021)
Top line: “888poker’s final major online poker series of 2021 has come to an end. Through 28 tournaments spread across 24 days, the WPTDeepStacks London Online Series distributed more than $3.4 million in prize money, PRO can reveal.”
Key takeaways:
- It was the second time in the current year that the festival took place on the global dot-com market as both brands further strengthened their partnership.
- The operator bumped the overall guarantee from $2.125 million to $3.31 million and nearly doubled the number of events. Instead of concentrating the series into just nine days, the festival spanned four weeks and lasted 24 days in total.
- The Main Event attracted 920 players and 104 re-entries and paid out $1,024,000 in prize money to the top 117 finishers.
