PokerStars' World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is close to wrapping up for another year. The marquee tournament series guaranteed $80 million across 225 tournaments that were then spread across 75 High, Medium and Low buy-in events.
Twelve events are still playing out, but registration for all events has officially closed. That means the stats are in!
Despite guaranteeing $80 million, WCOOP far exceeded that and generated a staggering prize pool of almost $100 million.
The final number in the books according to calculations by Poker Industry PRO is a whopping $99,945,330 in prize money. This was thanks to the 1,120,911 total entries that the series attracted.
The average guarantee per tournament worked out at $444,201.
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This past Sunday, September 20, was the biggest day of online tournament series as the three WCOOP Main Events (low, medium and high) played out with a combined $13 million in guaranteed prize money.
- WCOOP-H Main Event: $5200 buy-in and $10 million guaranteed
- WCOOP-M Main Event: $530 buy-in and $2 million guaranteed
- WCOOP-L Main Event: $55 buy-in and $1 million guaranteed
Check out some of the action from the Medium Main Event below.
WCOOP 2020 Ranks Second All-Time
Despite the strong end to the series, it just missed out on matching last year’s prize pool of $104 million. The 2019 outing remains the largest WCOOP prize pool in history.
Prior to that, the 2018 WCOOP paid out $99.5 million – now the third highest of all-time. However, the the 2020 series used 50 more events to surpass the total prize pool for 2018.
The number of days over which the series plays out has also varied over the years, with 2018 recording the highest average number of events per day (11.6), 2019 ranking second (10.4) and 2020 finishing third (9).
Prior to expanding the series to include low and medium buy-in versions of its events in 2018, the series averaged just over 3 events per day for the previous decade.
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WCOOP 2020 Overview
- Tournaments: 225
- Total GTD: $81,637,000
- Total Prize Pool: $99,945,330
- Avg. Prize Pool Per Tournament: $444,201
- Buy-ins Range: $2.20 to $25,000
- Avg. Buy-in: $937
- Total Entries: 1,120,911
- Largest Prize Pool: $10,000,000 (Main Event)
- No. of Overlays: 19 (8.45%)
- Total Overlays: $831,136
- Biggest Overlay: $140,000 (Even #2 H PKO)
- No. of Seven Figure Prize Pools: 23 (10.2%)
- No. Of High Rollers (>$1k): 64 (28.45%)
- Rake Collected: $6,645,783
- Net Profit: $5,814,647
- Series Duration: Aug 30 – Sep 23
Early Overlays for WCOOP 2020
WCOOP kicked off back in late August with some overlays plaguing the high stakes events.
Across the twelve events on the opening day of WCOOP 2020, the operator generated prize money of $8.7 million, outstripping the $7.8 million that was guaranteed. However, four tournaments fell short, causing overlays of over $300,000.
In total, 19 events during the series had overlays totaling $831,136.
The overlays could be put down to WCOOP starting at the same time that GGpoker (in conjunction with the WSOP) hosted the final day of registration for the 2020 WSOP Main Event.
With WCOOP now over, PokerStars moves its attention to the regulated state of Pennsylvania in the US where PACOOP is underway.
The Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker (PACOOP) guarantees $1.5 million across 50 events for poker players in the state. Buy-ins range from $10 all the way up to $500 for a PLO High Roller event.
PACOOP action kicked off on September 19 and runs until October 5.
