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WSOP and GGPoker Partner for Ontario Online Poker

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
iGaming Ontario

The World Series of Poker first partnered with GGPoker in an official capacity during the pandemic.

As it turns out, that initial collaboration was only the first of many steps toward a complicated but beneficial relationship between the two influential poker giants.

Though the WSOP had had a history with 888poker for online poker satellites prior to 2020, the brand chose GGPoker when it needed to go online in 2020. The pandemic forced the postponement of the live 2020 WSOP, a first in poker history. World Series executives made the decision to offer online bracelet events, which was fairly easy to do in the US market. It had WSOP sites in Nevada and New Jersey, but that was a limited player pool. And with travel all but prohibited, the rest of the world had no way to compete. That prompted the WSOP to partner with GGPoker, a somewhat surprising move considering the 888poker history, for as much of the global poker market as was possible.

The relationship blossomed. The WSOP offered bracelet events and Circuit events on GGPoker and expanded to satellites for live events when the WSOP returned to Las Vegas and Europe in late 2021.

In 2021, there were rumblings that GGPoker was applying for online poker licensing in parts of the United States market.

At the same time, the Canadian province of Ontario was working to end the monopoly that OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation) had on internet gaming. A years-long process began to take shape in 2021 when the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) laid out a roadmap for a new competitive, provincially-licensed igaming market. The new regulatory body oh-so-cleverly called itself iGaming Ontario. And into 2022, it started issuing licenses for a ring-fenced online poker, casino games, and sports betting market.

And this is where the WSOP-GGPoker relationship jumped to a new level. It appears that GGPoker obtained one of those Ontario licenses and will launch WSOP.ca.

GGPoker Put a Ring on It

After courting the WSOP for several years, it wasn’t necessarily surprising that the two would take their relationship to the next level.

Some of the executives behind GGPoker had long had a positive bond with the World Series of Poker. (Steve Priess of the Wicked Chops Poker blog is GGPoker Head of Poker Operations.) And GGPoker’s most outspoken and notable ambassador, Daniel Negreanu, has always had significant input and influence on the WSOP. With that in mind, the WSOP choosing GGPoker as its online partner for bracelets and global WSOP Circuit events wasn’t too surprising.

Therefore, the WSOP-GGPoker foray into the new Ontario market is a logical step for the two entities. It solidifies their partnership and intent to work together in multiple markets.

Licensed for New Market

Pokerfuse broke the story that GGPoker’s parent company received its license in Ontario. NSUS Limited applied for its license, which wouldn’t have been surprising if not for the domain under which it wants to operate – WSOP.ca. It marks the expansion of WSOP’s online poker name outside of the fragmented US market and GGPoker’s engagement to that brand.

As previously mentioned, the WSOP had tied its brand to 888poker for many years. Of course, 888poker ran global poker satellites for the World Series live events, but the other link was in the US market. The WSOP used the 888poker platform for its Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania poker sites. It was thought to be the platform on which the WSOP would also launch in Michigan and other states going forward. This may still be the case, though the WSOP has announced no Michigan plans yet and has not been able to facilitate the inclusion of Pennsylvania or Michigan (or Connecticut or West Virginia) in the multi-state poker agreement that allows sites to share player pools across state lines.

The US market is more than a little complicated.

The Ontario market, though, is its own newly-formed entity and a unique one in Canada thus far. And the WSOP is partnering with GGPoker to make its debut there.

A lot remains unknown. Will the WSOP-GGPoker relationship expand into more non-US markets? Will the WSOP continue to stick with the 888poker platform in the United States? Can the live WSOP become any more intertwined with GGPoker? The next few years may tell a clearer story.

On April 4, we will get a look at the new WSOP.ca poker site in Ontario, as that is the official launch date via iGaming Ontario. The layout of the website and the integration of WSOP and GGPoker components may provide some clues as to the future of their relationship.

 

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