BetMGM Expands Poker Championship with PokerGO

Last updated on March 25th, 2025

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It started out as a part of a larger tournament series. Originally, the tournament was simply the No Limit Hold’em Championship, the pinnacle of the ARIA Poker Classic’s 2022 summer schedule. It was a $3,500 buy-in with a $1M guarantee. Solid but standard.

All became clearer in early May when that tournament became the BetMGM Poker Championship. The partnership with BetMGM was a part of a larger picture that is still coming into focus. BetMGM offers online poker in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan…and is anxious to expand. (Word on the street is that it has been pursuing a license to operate online poker in Nevada.)

Meanwhile, the BetMGM partnership with the ARIA has now, logically, expanded to include PokerGO.

Let’s break it down.

BetMGM + ARIA

The early May announcement pertained to two of the tournaments on the 2022 ARIA Poker Classic schedule, actually. BetMGM branded the championship event and the mystery bounty tournament right after it.

-Event 23 (June 23-25): $3,500 buy-in BetMGM Poker Championship ($1M GTD)
-Event 24 (June 25): $600 buy-in BetMGM Poker Mystery Bounty ($100K GTD)

Putting the BetMGM name on these events makes them stand out on the schedule, of course. It also provides another component, linking the live tournaments to the still-burgeoning online poker market in the United States. The company put up multiple prize packages for each of the unique markets, and players can qualify via daily qualifiers and weekly satellites.

BetMGM + PokerGO

The latest partnership only makes sense. PokerGO’s studio is located at ARIA on the Las Vegas Strip, and many of the PokerGO Tour’s tournaments take place at the ARIA. The two are inextricably connected.

This week, BetMGM announced that it will partner with PokerGO for the BetMGM Poker Championship final table on June 26. It will now take place at the PokerGO Studio in ARIA. The final six players will compete for the win in the same studio that hosts many of the highest stakes poker games in the world.

In addition, Jeff Platt and Jamie Kerstetter will commentate on the action.

There will also be a NLHE freeroll tournament taking place on June 22, the day before the Championship tournament begins. There will be $25K in the prize pool for freeroll players, who will be able to qualify through BetMGM online qualifiers only.

Excited to announce partnership between @BetMGMPoker and @PokerGO for our BetMGM Championship. I will see all online qualifiers there on June 22 for the 25k Freeroll played in the premier venue in poker. https://t.co/XXmN4KBppJ
— Darren Elias (@DarrenElias)
Excited to announce partnership between @BetMGMPoker and @PokerGO for our BetMGM Championship. I will see all online qualifiers there on June 22 for the 25k Freeroll played in the premier venue in poker. https://t.co/XXmN4KBppJ
— Darren Elias (@DarrenElias) June 10, 2022