For the third year in a row, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has teamed up with 888 Poker, designating 888 as the exclusive international satellite provider for the world’s leading poker tournament series.
The agreement is comparable in scale to previous agreements, and also provides an option to extend it to the 2018 event.
888 Poker once again aims to qualify 100s of players
In its inaugural year as the sole external online satellite provider for the series, 888 Poker successfully qualified 128 players for the WSOP Main Event, which had a buy-in of $10,000.
The site also sponsored Joe McKeehen, who eventually became champion.
The site sent more than 250 Main Event qualifiers last year, including Fernando Pons and Griffin Benger who progressed to the November Nine.
Apart from the WSOP.com satellites offered in New Jersey and Nevada, the only other method to secure an online seat is through the 888 satellites.
WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart says:
WSOP is thrilled to announce the renewal of our agreement with 888poker for the third consecutive year.
In the last few years, 888poker has significantly raised the bar with a fresh online and offline strategy aimed at returning power to the players.
Itai Pazner, the Senior Vice President and Head of B2C at 888 Holdings, states, “Our ongoing collaboration with the WSOP attests to our growing dominance in the industry. It also highlights our enduring pledge to enhance the thrill of poker and make it more readily available to players worldwide.”
Partnership will also feature Crazy Eights event and Kara Scott
In 2016, the collaboration between 888 and WSOP decided to commemorate their partnership by hosting an $888 buy-in Crazy Eights bracelet event.
The tournament with eight players had a confirmed first-place reward of $888,888. It comprised four flights and options for re-entry. The competition attracted 6,761 participants in total, with Hung Le emerging as the champion and claiming the bracelet.
Kara Scott, who signed on as an ambassador for 888 Poker in 2016, will return to television as the sideline reporter for ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP. She will be working alongside Norman Chad and Lon McEachern. In addition to her hosting responsibilities, Scott will also be promoting 888 Poker this summer.
2017 will be most online-centric WSOP in history
The forthcoming WSOP is expected to not only witness record-breaking numbers of 888 qualifiers but also host the highest number of online bracelet events in the extensive history of the Las Vegas series.
WSOP, after launching the inaugural online bracelet in 2015 and repeating the event the following year, is broadening the online portion of the series. It will now include three bracelet events with entry fees of $333, $1,000, and $3,333.
Contrary to the past two years where Day 1 of the event was conducted online and the final table was played live the next day, all these tournaments will be single-day and exclusively online events.
Every one of them will present the winner with an official gold bracelet.
The online events will be hosted by WSOP.com, with 888 also participating in these tournaments. The WSOP.com client operates on 888 software, demonstrating that the collaboration between the two companies extends beyond just the summer series.
Step satellites for 888 Poker have already commenced. The minimum buy-in for these online tournaments is as low as one cent. The remaining price levels on the step ladder include:
- $.10
- $1
- $5
- $30
- $160
Online satellites on WSOP.com are currently ongoing in New Jersey and Nevada. The buy-ins for these tournaments vary between $10 and $30.
