Online poker giant, PokerStars, has unveiled the first details of one of its richest online poker tournament series, the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) 2020.
And once again, it promises to be the operator’s most ambitious online tournament series in its 19-year history with guarantees totaling a staggering $85 million in prize money. The series guarantee is up $5 million from last year as SCOOP 2019 initially had $75 million guaranteed but was later increased to $80 million following the addition of new events.
No other online poker room has hosted a tournament series of this magnitude.
The first SCOOP 2020 events take place on April 30. The series runs for 20 days until May 19.
“SCOOP is something we look forward to each year, and hope our players do too,” said Severin Rasset, Managing Director & Commercial Officer, Poker, Product and Innovation at PokerStars. “We take pride in planning a series that gives every player in the poker community something to enjoy.”
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What to Expect from SCOOP 2020?
Although the full schedule has not been set in stone, as per the presser, SCOOP 2020 will feature an expanded schedule, comprising more than 80 events split into three different buy-in categories— Low, Medium, and High. This makes a total of at least 240 tournaments.
Last year, there were 219 tournaments in total, so the number of events has been increased by at least 21 tournaments for now.
SCOOP 2020 Main Events to Feature Combined Guarantees of $13 Million
The operator has also unveiled the buy-ins and guarantees for the three Main Events with total combined guarantees of $13 million — the most ever.
The Low tier Main Event with a buy-in of $109 will guarantee $3 million — a slight bump on the $2.5 million from last year; the Medium tier $1050 buy-in will guarantee $5 million — an increase of $1 million, and the High tier $10,300 buy-in will retain the same $5 million guarantee as last year.
In total, the Main Events will represent over 15% of the overall series guarantee.
Another event that has been showcased by the operator is the Three Phase tournaments with buy-ins of $2.20, $22 and $215. They will have total guarantees of over $3 million.
SCOOP 2020 Promotions
In addition to the $85 million guaranteed tournaments, PokerStars will be promoting the series with special offers that provide players the opportunity to pad their bankrolls and win their way into SCOOP events.
SCOOP Freerolls
Every day PokerStars is hosting Daily $5000 Second Chance Freerolls. Qualifying for these freerolls is pretty simple, just bust out of a SCOOP tournament without reaching the money.
In addition, the upcoming Sunday Storm Anniversary will give away 50,000 tickets to a special SCOOP Freeroll, where players can win seats to the Medium Main Event worth $1050.
SCOOP Leaderboard
A Player of the Series Leaderboard will also be part of SCOOP 2020. As usual, the leaderboard will reward players based on their participation and success; however, the awarding of prizes will be slightly different this year.
As per the presser, during the first half of SCOOP, the prizes for the leaderboard will be tickets to upcoming SCOOP events. During the second half of the series, players will be awarded cash prizes.
The leaderboard will also be used to determine the SCOOP Player of the Series. The player that finishes atop the leaderboard will receive $20,000 as well as a SCOOP Trophy.
Special SCOOP Spin & Gos
To help players qualify for the SCOOP events, PokerStars will be offering three Special SCOOP Spin & Gos with buy-ins of $0.75, $3 and $22. Each of them will award cash prizes as well as SCOOP tickets including entries to the Main Events.
These Special SCOOP Spin & Gos will run in addition to the satellites and qualifiers for SCOOP events.
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Key Information for SCOOP 2020
- Takes place April 30 – May 19
- $85 million in guaranteed prize money
- More than 80 events split into three tiers for a total of at least 240 online poker tournaments
- Three Main Events with combined guarantees of $13 million
- Special SCOOP Spin & Gos with buy-ins of $0.75, $3 and $22 will award SCOOP tickets
- Daily Second Chance Freerolls offer $5000 to those that bust a SCOOP event without making the money
- Player of the Series Leaderboard awards SCOOP tickets and cash prizes
History of PokerStars’ SCOOP Series
PokerStars’ Spring Championship series has always been a staple of the online poker calendar. The upcoming SCOOP 2020 will be the twelfth edition as the first edition of SCOOP was held in 2009.
SCOOP has grown incredibly over the past few years. From 2013 to 2016, the guarantees were held at $40 million, but starting in 2017, it has grown $5 to $10 million every year.
Last year’s SCOOP featured 73 events with combined guarantees of $80 million in prizes, an amount it easily surpassed. It ended up paying over $105 million — a record in the online poker industry for the biggest payout for a single series. Even WCOOP 2019, which is considered more prestigious, awarded $104 million — a million shy from breaking SCOOP’s record.
This is very likely to be repeated for the 2020 edition, which runs April 30 to May 19.
Until then, PokerStars will be running its ultra-popular low-stakes series, MicroMillions with total guarantees of $2.67 million. It kicks off this Sunday, April 19 and runs through April 26, culminating with the $1 million guaranteed Sunday Storm Anniversary edition, serving as the MicroMillions Main Event.
