The 2021 888poker XL Spring Series is now complete, and until the final day, the series was doing very well—the first seven days of the series posted a small boost over the guarantees.
However, missed guarantees on the final day wiped all those gains away, as players enjoyed big value in the final day’s Main Events.
Seven of the eight days in the series enjoyed a strong turnout. Two events posted prize pools more than 35% over their guarantees.
Overall, the series collected $925,065 from entries, which was just under 90% of the $1,036,000 total guarantee. Across the 25 events in the series, 888poker collected almost $75,000 in fees to offset that guarantee miss, which almost covered these costs.
However, the headliner Main Event, with its ambitious $500,000 guarantee, stood out as the biggest miss for the operator. It came up short some $100,000, meaning huge value for all players who did play or satellite into the event.
XL Spring Series by the Numbers
While the series as a whole missed its guarantee by more than $100,000, there were certainly some bright spots.
The very first event saw a huge increase over the guarantee, putting more than 35% extra into the prize pool. With the guarantee set at $50,000, 1,353 entries swelled the final prize pool to $67,650.
That was the largest increase of a guarantee across the whole series based on dollar value, but Event #19 posted almost a 40% increase over its guarantee. The $33, $10,000 guaranteed event saw 464 entries for a total prize pool of nearly $14,000.
2021 XL Spring Series Overall Results
| Events | 25 |
| Total Gty | $1,036,000 |
| Total Entries | 19677 |
| Total Prize Pool | $925,065 |
| Total Fees | $74,833 |
| Total Collected | $999,898 |
| Difference w/o Fees | -$110,935 |
| Difference w Fees | -$36,103 |
The first three bounty events also did well, collecting more than $12,000 extra over their guarantees. The second set of bounty games on the following day was not quite so well represented, missing their guarantees by more than $16,000.
Otherwise, turnout was a mixed bag. Of the 25 events, only 12 managed to collect more than their posted guarantee, while 13 events missed it. That means overall, the series was $110,935 short of the total guarantees.
However, up until the final day, it was looking good. When the games on the second-to-last day ended, the running total of prize pool money collected was about $5,000 above the posted guarantees. With the more than $44,000 collected in fees to that point, it looked like with a decent final day the series would finish in the black.
That was not to be, however. All three of the marquee Main Event games on the final day missed their guarantees, with the full Main Event missing by more than $100,000. Overall, these optimistic guarantees meant they had a $85,814 shortfall on the final day after fees are included.
The $33 Mini Main event came the closest to hitting the mark. With $50,000 guaranteed, they came within shouting distance of that, collecting $48,540 from entries. The $4,854 in fees collected for that game more than made up for that shortfall, but both the Main and the Micro Main collected closer to 75% of their posted guarantees.
Decent Results from Other Sunday Games
While the XL Spring Series Main Events missed their guarantees on Sunday, other Sunday events did quite well. Pokerfuse recently reported on the new Made to Amaze tournament running every Sunday, and this week’s inaugural running saw 1,788 entries for a total prize pool of $11,295 on the $10,000 guaranteed event.
Sunday PKO games like PKO Rumble 33 and PKO Rumble 88 broke their guarantees, while the 6-Max Mayhem 55 found more than 50% extra in prizes than they guaranteed. The Voyage 33 and the Big Shot 88 both also surpassed their guarantees by a comfortable margin.
While those successes do not make up for the missed guarantees in the Main Events, they certainly helped stem the losses. It is worth noting that $500,000 guaranteed for a $250 buy-in was always fairly optimistic for 888poker, even as a Main Event, and that optimism spilled down through the smaller Main Event guarantees as well.
It may not have been a surprise to the operator that it failed to hit guarantees on the final day, given how high they were set. In the end, it came within about $36,000 of breaking even for the series, not including ancillary costs like live reporting.
Over the course of the week, 888poker were able to solidify its presence on Twitch as well. The commentary team of Nick Wealthall and David Tuchman on 888pokerTV put in a solid series of coverage, and took the opportunity to announce 888poker is creating a new Stream Team. The first member, Josh “PumpkinKing” Manley, streamed most of the series on his channel, but 888poker expects to make further Stream Team announcements this week.
Overall, 888poker will not be disappointed with the results of the XL Spring Series. It surely would have liked to break the guarantees, but the optimistic final day numbers always made that a long shot—and, as always, the upside is great value for players.
With the increased Twitch presence—something 888poker was a bit late to the game with—whatever monetary losses the series sustained may well have been made up for by the growth of the brand.
