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PokerStars Wraps MicroMillions and Preps for WCOOP

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
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The folks at PokerStars have been busy bees. As the world struggles to slay the coronavirus beast, PokerStars awaits the opportunity to resume some live poker events. Meanwhile, the operator focuses on what it does best – online poker.

PokerStars just finished its latest MicroMillions series and awarded $5.3M in 12 days. The site is already preparing for the upcoming WCOOP, its largest poker series of the year, which will kick off on August 22.

And in the meantime, PokerStars signed a multi-year deal with Formula 1. It will be the official betting sponsor of the racing giant through 2023.

All of this is happening at a time when PokerStars is regaining its top spot in global online poker cash game rankings, losing it to GGPoker only recently and briefly. At the same time but behind the scenes, PokerStars is testing out a remodeled rewards system for its players, one with more cashback and more transparency.

Formula 1 First

It is no secret that PokerStars has made industry allies in other games and sports. From sponsoring an esports team to recruiting football greats like Neymar Jr. as site representatives, the company has always enjoyed dipping its toes in the broader sports world. So, its latest move isn’t surprising but is impressive nonetheless.

PokerStars’ parent company, Flutter International, partnered with Interregional Sports Group (ISG) to make PokerStars the official betting sponsor of Formula 1. Each season through 2023 will put the PokerStars brand at the center of advertising deals pertaining to European broadcasts of Formula 1 races. The brand will also advertise at the tracks during races.

ISG Joint Executive CEO Tony Ragan noted, “Combining the worldwide appeal of PokerStars and this targeted approach in engaging fans with many similar traits as the PokerStars community is an incredible opportunity for innovation and further engagement between the two popular brands.”

PokerStars Marketing Director Tom Warren added, “Working with Formula 1 provides us with the opportunity to reach a fan base whose passion for sport goes way beyond motorsport. To be able to engage an audience of this size and yet focus just on the regions that are key to us makes this a very exciting proposition.”

New Rewards, More Cashback

Earlier this month, Pokerfuse broke the story that PokerStars is testing out a new rewards system. This one increases the transparency of the system and increases potential cashback to 65%.

For many years, pro poker players have rejected the PokerStars Rewards regime that ended the Supernova Elite VIP system of the past. As they sought alternate poker sites with more rewards, many of them found new options like GGPoker. Not only did that site attract PokerStars’ top ambassador of many years, Daniel Negreanu, GGPoker lured a lot of the players with bonuses and rewards.

That led to a recent an interesting June development that saw GGPoker’s cash game traffic surpass that of PokerStars. It was the first time PokerStars lost its top spot since 2006.

PokerStars wasn’t going to give up that spot without a fight, though, so it launched its series and ramped up its promotions. And by last week, Pokerfuse reported that PokerStars regained its number one ranking after a month away.

In order to keep those players, PokerStars would like to roll out the new rewards program. For now, though, it is involving approximately 20% of its players in the program. They will participate in the trial for three months, during and after which they will answer questions about it. PokerStars can then tweak it or roll it out further.

The players in the rewards testing mode will see some rewards chests as has been the case, and points will transfer across the verticals. New to them, though, are fixed rakeback percentages and targeted chest values per playing tiers. Each player will receive a monthly challenge, and meeting that challenge can earn the player as much as 40% cashback.

Another MicroMillions Success

The latest iteration of the famous MicroMillions tournament on the dot-com PokerStars site ran from July 15-26. It offered 122 tournaments and $4.7M in tournament guarantees.

This one was already set up to beat the last one. That one was in December 2020 and offered 115 tournaments and $3.5M guaranteed. It did quite well and paid out more than $4.6M in prize money. The MicroMillions that just ended this week beat that by guaranteed prize pools alone.

Let’s look at the final numbers, courtesy of PokerStars:

-Number of tournaments:  122

-Total number of entries:  798,068 (including reentries)

-Total prize money awarded:  $5,363,065 (surpassing $4.7M GTD)

-Total first-place winnings:  $424,552

-Total number of participating countries:  35

The smallest fields in the series belonged to PL Badugi, Fusion, Stud, NL 2-7 Single Draw PKO, and HORSE events. The five biggest fields of the series were:

-Event 36: $11 NLHE Sunday Storm Anniversary = 64,617 entries

-Event 106: $22 NLHE 8-Max Main Event = 52,696 entries

-Event 107: $11 NLHE PKO Sunday Storm Special = 34,939 entries

-Event 104: $3.30 NLHE PKO = 21,511 entries

-Event 25: $5.50 NLHE 8-Max PKO = 21,417 entries

The five smallest prize pools belonged to events with $3K guarantees that didn’t hit that number. Those were NLHE 4-Max 3-Stack, Fusion PKO, PL Badugi, Fusion, and Showtime tournaments. And the five biggest prize pools of the series were:

-Event 106: $22 NLHE 8-Max Main Event = $1,059,380 ($1M GTD)

-Event 36: $11 NLHE Sunday Storm Anniversary = $1M (technical difficulties cancelled but paid $1M)

-Event 107: $11 NLHE PKO Sunday Storm Special = $342,402 ($250K GTD)

-Event 118: $5.50 NLHE 8-Max Phase 2 = $278,095 ($250K GTD)

-Event 87: $11 NLHE PKO = $157,672 ($100K GTD)

Russian and Brazilian players dominated this MicroMillions, with top winners showing up as follows:

-25 titles = Russia

-20 titles = Brazil

-8 titles = Romania and Ukraine

-6 titles = UK

-5 titles = Germany and Greece

-4 titles = Argentina and Denmark

Finally, the Main Event (Event 106) offered that $1M guarantee for a $22 buy-in. It attracted 52,696 entries for a total prize pool of $1,059,380. And in the end, Badbomen of Argentina won the tournament for $87,466.

PokerStars listed all the tournament results on its website.

Prepping for WCOOP

The full schedule for the 2021 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is not available yet, but PokerStars did reveal some key points about it.

When? August 22 to September 15

Where? PokerStars (duh)

How much? $100M GTD

The massive series guarantee is the biggest to date. Last year, the 2020 WCOOP offered 225 tournaments and $80M in prize pool guarantees. And when it finished, it had awarded $99,939,230 in prize money, well past the promised amount.

This year, as usual, there will be a wide range of tournament buy-ins in WCOOP. There will be tons of satellites and qualifiers, too.

PokerStars is adding one more unique path to WCOOP this year, though: the 50/50 WCOOP Edition.

The series is named for the set of 50 tournaments, each with $50 buy-ins. It is playing out August 1-15, culminating in a special $50 buy-in Sunday Million on the final day…with a $1M guarantee. Every winner in this series will win a WCOOP Main Event ticket worth $5,200, in addition to the regular prize money.

 

 

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