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WSOP 2019, interesting facts and a brief history

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World Series Of Poker Super Circuit Series Heads To London This July
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We have all heard about poker tournaments and the excitement around them, but there is once particular series of tournaments that brings a peculiar feeling to worldwide poker players and that is the World Series of Poker, mostly known by its acronyms, WSOP.

Sources claim it dates back to the 70s, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament.

We have come a long way since Harrah’s signed an agreement with 888, to provide its online gaming services and in our current year, WSOP has reached the 50th Anniversary. The live tournament series has managed to smash record after record with a 9% increase in attendance year-on-year.

However, 2019 wasn’t the case for a new record, but we must mention that this year’s attendance of 8,569 figures represents the second-largest field size in the past 50-years and the fourth successive year that the attendance has increased. That has got to count for something.

While some figures go higher, we must mention that the age of the WSOP players is still going down. The age range in the total field demographic shows a dominance of players ranging between 26 to 40.

The average age of 2019 WSOP Main Event participants is 41.46 vs 42.27 recorded in 2018. For males, the average is 41.34 and for females, 44.30.

In whichever way you take it, it is a huge achievement considering the limited options available to the WSOP for online satellite qualification.

It is the year of second best, as the $80,548,600 prize pool is also the second-highest in 50-years and all Final Table Payouts are guaranteed to be of seven-figures with seven-figure pay jumps starting with four players remaining.

One thousand two hundred eighty-six players will receive a minimum of $15,000, which is really good news for everyone taking part in the tournament which is held this year between May 28 and 16 July.

As we have mentioned earlier, the Word Series of Poker has really grown into a global event and now attract players from 87 different countries to make up this year’s field.

Top Ten Countries Represented in 2019 are United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, China, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Russia and Austria.

But, it’s not all good news when it comes to this year’s tournament. Poker industry media outlets reported that in a strange turn of events, a player has been disqualified for stealing a player’s entire stack as he scooped in a won pot. Georgii Belianin, from Russia, had won a small pot and when reaching out to claim the chips he put his arm around the player to his left’s stack and collected that too. It was alleged by witnesses that he did this with a smile on his face, maybe insinuating that it was supposed to be a joke.

Belianin didn’t get a chance to see anybody laughing, because he shortly got escorted out of the tournament playing area by Jack Effel (World Series of Poker Vice President) and then handed over to security.

PokerCentral has also reported that the 1989 WSOP Main Event Champion, Phil Hellmuth, lasted just five hours in the tournament. It is now surprise after having spent the past days by doing an eight-hour hiking trip up to Machu Pichu, swimming with turtles and penguins, and having deep and meaningful conversations with some of the brightest business minds, such as Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Peter Guber, Hollywood star Rob Lowe, Los Angeles Dodgers CEO Lon Rosen, super-agent Todd Feldman of CAA, and Jason Sugarman.

But wait, we just arrived to another funny story of this year’s happenings at the WSOP so far (there are still a few days left, so there might be more). An unidentified man, wearing a t-shirt with numbers 55 on the back, has moved all-in and then proceeded to stand up as he waited for his opponent to make a decision. What happened next might be the strangest and most unbelievable thing you’ll ever see at a poker table and especially during a live tournament.

The presumably intoxicated man turned his back to the table and dropped his shorts, exposing his genitalia to everyone in the Pavilion room at the Rio and moments later, he took off his shoe and threw it directly at the dealer. You can find the video online just by searching for ‘WSOP, Man Exposes Himself at Table’.

At the time of writing this article, poker industry media outlets have reported that Preben Stokkan is the likely chip leader as the only player above two million, claiming 2,184,000 to his name.

Three former WSOP Main Event champions are still in the mix for a repeat victory in Chris Moneymaker, Qui Nguyen, and Johnny Chan.

The story will continue…

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Industry News

Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal

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Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal
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With Bitblox introducing an entirely new breed of crypto-based price prediction games to the iGaming industry, we talked to CEO, Brandt Page, to discover how combining elements of both chance and skill with lightning-fast betting rounds has helped improve their cross-market appeal.

 

When Bitblox was first established, our core concept was relatively simple; we didn’t just want to provide players with a new twist on an existing format like slots or casino games, but instead sought to create an entirely new vertical that combined elements of chance and elements of skill.

One of the main drivers behind this decision was the fact that we wanted our releases to appeal to as broad an audience as possible – and I think from the figures we’ve seen so far, we’ve already had some notable success on that front in terms of the players that are engaging with our games.

Funnily enough, I was recently talking to the Head of Marketing from one of the operators that we work with and they told me they were struggling to place our games optimally. Initially, they’d put them in with crash and instant win content, but they soon discovered a lot of their in-game traffic was coming from sports bettors. A move to the sports betting tab followed, but the exact same-thing happened with casino players, leading to the games eventually winding up on the front page.

As this was going on, our games were continuing to post solid numbers with the customers who bet on both sports and casino – and all of this engagement was coming without there being any additional promotion from us or the operator. So why was it that our games were performing so well across these different player segments? I believe there are a number of contributing factors.

First and foremost, having this hybrid model of games of chance and games of skill that I’ve already mentioned has placed us in a fairly unique position within the iGaming industry. On the one hand, the simple premise of our Bitcoin-based titles – coupled with their attractive designs and intuitive UI – makes them highly accessible to casino players who are just looking to have fun.

On the other, the fact that Bitblox games aren’t based on RNG and are instead pinned to the real-time movements of the Bitcoin market certainly resonates with a sports betting audience. As they have the ability to follow the charts and use this information to inform their decisions, they definitely feel they have more control over the outcome than if they were playing a traditional slot.

Another key aspect of our cross-market appeal is the fast-paced nature of all Bitblox releases. With casino players being accustomed to the quick wins and instant gratification of slots and crash games and sports bettors also showing a growing preference for in-play wagering, we’ve ensured each game round is resolved quickly and that there are multiple opportunities for betting.

When we first launched Up or Down?, which features one-minute betting rounds, we soon learned that even this timeframe is too long for some players. This resulted in us developing Up or Down? Turbo – a game which kept the same mechanics as its predecessor but reduced the betting window to 20 seconds – and this has gone on to become one of our most successful titles.

Keeping all this in mind, one of the things I’m most excited about is the upcoming release of our latest game, 3 in a Row, as I think this is a title that really ties everything I’ve talked about so far together. Designed to look like a slot machine, 3 in a Row challenges players to correctly predict how the Bitcoin price will move over three separate 20-second windows for even bigger payouts.

Intended to appeal to casual users and serious sports bettors alike, players can elect to either spin the reels for fun and select a random price sequence or use the bet builder feature to put together their own custom prediction. With the latter essentially functioning like an accumulator bet, players can select up to three possible combinations – i.e. Up/Up/Up, Up/Up/Down etc – and only one result needs to land for them to win, ensuring they stay engaged until the final seconds.

I believe that 3 in a Row can help build on the strong foundations we’ve laid down with casino and sports bettors and provide operators with another popular option that offers significant cross-market appeal. Based on what we’ve seen from previous Bitblox releases, the audience for titles that combine elements of chance and elements of skill is definitely out there – and I’m looking forward to our unique brand of crypto-based games being enjoyed by even more players in future.

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Industry News

Gaming Corps to launch with lotteries in the USA via EQL games deal

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In-demand content provider extends reach into largest iGaming market in the world with its full suite of games made available via iLottery aggregation platform

Gaming Corps, a publicly-listed game studio based in Sweden renowned for creating industry-leading games, has made its debut in the US market through a breakthrough agreement with leading lottery provider, EQL Games.

The distribution agreement will see Gaming Corps’ full suite of games made available to EQL Games’ powerful iLottery Aggregation Platform, developed to provide lottery operators across America with direct access to a portfolio of proprietary and third-party games.

Following the integration, EQL Games’ lottery operator partners will be offered proven Slots, Table Games, Multiplier Games, Mine Games and Plinko Games, as well as titles under Gaming Corps’ innovative and trademarked Smash4Cash™ series.

The deal and integration come at a time of growing demand among online lottery operators in the US for non-traditional content, a format that Gaming Corps has excelled in, especially with its Smash4Cash™ games, which have been a hit with players in global markets.

EQL’s aggregation platform has been developed to allow online lottery operators to quickly and easily access content from multiple game studios simultaneously through one integration and one commercial agreement.

Its iLottery Aggregation platform simplifies the process of adding new games to an online lottery brand across regulated states. In addition to the third-party content provided via its aggregator platform, EQL Games has a portfolio of in-house titles.

This includes games produced under licence with Team USA which were rolled out by several state lotteries for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this year, with new titles being planned ahead of the Winter Games in Milan (2026) and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles (2028).

Juha KauppinenCEO of Gaming Corps, said: “The USA has always been somewhat of the holy grail for game developers like us, which has been further emphasised as markets in several states have become regulated. The potential in the American market is enormous, and the impact for us is a bit difficult to assess, but we have great hopes for the collaboration with EQL Games, which has an impressive platform towards U.S. lotteries.

“We believe it will have a significantly positive impact on our revenues. I would like to personally take the opportunity to thank EQL Games and Brad Cummings for the collaboration, and we are now working hard to complete the integration so that all our games will be offered to EQL’s customers via their platform.”

Brad CummingsCEO of EQL Games, added: “Including Gaming Corps as a supplier to the EQL Games iLottery Aggregator is an exciting step forward in our mission to offer unique, high-quality content to state lotteries. Gaming Corps’ expertise in iGaming, along with their unique game portfolio, fits perfectly with our vision of enhancing the lottery experience through dynamic and engaging content.”

 

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Industry News

Public Voting Starts for Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0

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The highly anticipated Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0 has officially entered the public voting phase as submissions are closed.

More than 70 game providers have turned in over 160 submissions, including Tom Horn Gaming, Pragmatic Play and RubyPlay. Public voting involves enthusiasts casting their votes to pick the winner of the Game of Public Choice category.

The Public voting phase ends on December 1st 23:59 GMT+4.

Concurrent to public voting, the first phase of private voting also starts during which all participants who have submitted entries get the chance to vote for one favourite in each category. An international auditing company oversees this phase to eliminate duplicate votes and self-votes. This phase ends on November 19, 23:59 GMT+4.

The second phase of private voting will also take place with a jury of industry experts making their decisions based on the shortlist picked by participants during the first phase.

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