WPT, partypoker Announce Four-Year Deal for Europe and Canada Events
The World Poker Tour and partypoker are back in lockstep, as the two industry titans will team up over the next four years to bring poker players great live events in Canada and Europe.
The partnership will see up to seven events spread across the four-year span, with each sporting prize pools up to €3 million.
"The World Poker Tour is proud to partner with partypoker LIVE on this new, four-year global initiative,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska in a press release. “The partnership allows the WPT to continue its dedication of bringing world-class poker to people’s lives, and we are honored to have John Duthie and the entire team at partypoker LIVE sharing in this value. Together with partypoker LIVE, we look forward to elevating the game for all levels.”
Partnership Details
The first event under the new pact is just around the corner, in October of this year. Playground Poker Club in Montreal will host a WPT bonanza the likes of which the poker world has not yet seen: a WPT500 event, a WPTDeepStacks event and a WPT Main Tour all in one venue during one festival. The WPT has previously married WPTDeepStacks and WPT events on occasion, such as last season at Amsterdam.
Casino Sochi in Russia and Dusk Till Dawn in the U.K., which already have strong ties to partypoker, will also reportedly host 2019 events. The rest of the current WPT season schedule for 2018 does not feature any other events besides Montreal in locales for which the partypoker partnership would come into play.
As part of the partypoker end of the bargain, the online giant will qualify 300-plus players to every event for which it teams with WPT. Also, partypoker satellite grinders will be able to use their PP LIVE $$$ to buy in. More information on the system can be found here.
Duthie said he's "pleased" to be working closely with the WPT.
"The WPT has always aimed to put the players first, and that is a mission we strongly adhere to with our partypoker LIVE events," he said. "Collaborating with the WPT on these additional events across Canada and Europe will allow us to continue to provide players with the tournaments they want across the globe."
History of WPT and partypoker
Collaboration between the WPT and partypoker isn't anything new. In fact, the two entities have been closely tied for years.
Most recently, partypoker has served as an online partner for WPT events across Europe, in places like Prague, London and Cyprus.
Prior to that, the two companies were under the same ownership. After heavily sponsoring WPT events for years, PartyGaming acquired the WPT in 2009 for $12.3 million with the hope of getting a foothold back in the U.S. whenever online gambling laws were relaxed. In 2015, though, the tour was sold to current owners Ourgame for $35 million.
