WPT and WSOP Enlist Partnerships for Growth
Business partnerships in poker are nothing new. There have long been poker players sponsored by operators, and players with their own businesses have worked those into contracts.
For example, during the poker boom, Full Tilt Poker sponsored Taylor Caby, Brian Townsend, David Benefield, Brian Hastings, and Cole South. And their FTP Red Pro status was unique as they were combined as Team CardRunners, showing a partnership with the men’s CardRunners poker training site.
On a much larger scale, companies merged or bought out competitors, such as the 2009 deal between the World Poker Tour and PartyPoker.
Recent partnerships between poker entities, however, have taken the industry into uncharted territories.
World Poker Tour…
The World Poker Tour handles its own tour. Now well past its 20th season, the WPT has blended its main tour stops that are mostly in the US with its WPT Prime lower buy-in global tour to create a year-long schedule. And it ends with the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, the largest undertaking of the year and one that attracts players from around the world.
Additionally, the company has its own online poker site, WPT Global, that operates outside of the US. Add in the LearnWPT educational arm of the business and the ClubWPT subscription-based site that complies with US market regulations, and the WPT is a complete package.
Well, there was one thing missing.
Since WPT Prime focuses on international stops, the WPT didn’t exactly have a mid-major series running in the United States. That’s okay, as the US mid-major market is fairly saturated at the moment, but it would’ve been nice to have a US mid-major tour that could qualify players for the year-ending WPT World Championship.
…Plus MSPT
Enter the Mid-States Poker Tour. The MSPT has been working its way through the Midwest United States and beyond since it transitioned from the Minnesota State Poker Tour in 2011. The goal was to bring affordable poker tournaments to casinos that are often overlooked by larger tours. And they wanted to provide mid-major buy-ins with sizeable chip stacks to give weekend players the best value.
More than a decade later, the MSPT offers tournaments from California to Colorado, Nevada to Ohio, Iowa to Missouri, Michigan to Minnesota, and Iowa to Indiana.
This summer, the MSPT announced that it partnered with the World Poker Tour to provide live satellites to the WPT World Championship at Wynn in December. Players will be able to participate in satellites that start as low as $140 to try to win their way into the $10K buy-in WPT WC Main Event.
Unknown Partnership Details
Interestingly, the MSPT has its regularly scheduled tour stops on the calendar through beginning of November. There is a “to be announced” message for a December 3-8 series and then a December 10-15 one. Last year, there were December events at Running Aces in Minnesota and the Venetian in Las Vegas.
Note that the only WPT announcement this year about the 2024 WPT World Championship so far this year was the April press release about the bookend dates. It will run December 3-23 at Wynn, but players are anxiously awaiting the complete schedule.
Could it include another component of the MSPT-WPT partnership?
World Series of Poker…
The World Series of Poker has gone through phases of obtaining sponsors through its 55-plus years of operation .There was a multi-year deal with a beer called Milwaukee’s Best, one with Jack Link’s beef jerky, and other sponsorships that ranged from a vape company to a bank.
In addition, the WSOP has gone through a few online poker sponsorships as well, like Everest Poker, 888poker, and GGPoker. They differed based on the varying legal status of online poker in the world, as well as the launch of its own proprietary WSOP play-money site and then its real-money site in Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. And the GGPoker partnership grew into such a partner that GGPoker’s parent company, NSUS Group, just bought the WSOP.
The combination of the WSOP and GGPoker appeared to have everything both brands wanted.
But there was something else.
…Plus Triton
As GGPoker was putting its finishing touches on the deal to buy the WSOP, it also solidified another partnership this summer. It became the title sponsor of the Triton Poker Series, just in time to welcome Triton to WSOP Paradise this December as a partner.
The focus of WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas, when it launched last December, was partially to attract high-stakes players. While there were buy-ins of all types, the WSOP wanted its high rollers to bring their dollars to Atlantis Paradise Island in December instead of spending that money at Wynn for the WPT Championship. The series squeaked out a win in 2023 with attendance but left a lot of players choosing the WPT in Las Vegas instead.
This year, to remedy that, GGPoker partnered with Triton, the live poker series that has become the epitome of high-stakes poker done right. Fans and players alike have taken to Triton in the past several years for their top-level coverage of events and top-class treatment of players.
The press release came from GGPoker, not Triton or the WSOP, and highlighted that the Triton Millions will play out at WSO Paradise this year. This is the $1M-buy-in event that splits the buy-in between an invited player and a non-pro-player partner. Both the poker pro and the businessperson or celebrity put up $500K each, and the event attracts a lot of fan attention.
Is there more?
Unknown Triton Possibilities
For the time being, it appears that GGPoker will continue to sponsor Triton, and Triton will simply host its Millions event at WSOP Paradise. But the opportunity to increase the closeness of the relationship is there.
With rumors that the 2024 WSOP Europe at King’s Casino Rozvadov in the Czech Republic is the last of that particular iteration of the World Series, there is an opening to take the Triton-GG-WSOP mix to another level.
Keep your eyes peeled for a WSOP Montenegro or WSOP Cyprus or even a larger deal that pulls Triton and the WSOP closer by way of their NSUS deals.
