POKERSTARS LAUNCHES BETTING MARKET FOR WCOOP $51,000 SUPER HIGH ROLLER EVENT
Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier joint favourites
ONCHAN, Isle of Man – September 16, 2015 – PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA) brand, today announced that it is taking bets on the winner of the World Championship of Online Poker $51,000 Super High Roller event, which takes place September 20-21.
Team PokerStars Pros Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu (6 WSOP bracelets, 1 SCOOP title, #1 on All-Time Money List) and Jason Mercier (3 WSOP bracelets, 2 WCOOP and 4 SCOOP titles), along with Chris ‘Moorman1’ Moorman, who has more than $6.5m in cashes at PokerStars, are the current early favourites at odds of 13.00 (12/1, +1200), with a host of other star names among the frontrunners. Here are the top 20 at the moment, listed by PokerStars screen name:
- Jason Mercier – 13.00
- KidPoker – 13.00
- Moorman1 – 13.00
- PokerNoob999 – 15.00
- lechuckpoker – 15.00
- philbort – 15.00
- mrGR33N13 – 15.00
- CrownUpGuy – 15.00
- wizowizo – 15.00
- Ike Haxton – 15.00
- ZeeJustin – 15.00
- ElkY – 15.00
- Mrsweets28 – 15.00
- Timex – 15.00
- Isildur1 – 15.00
- zangbezan24 – 17.00
- Sauce123 – 17.00
- Danny98765 – 17.00
- jcarverpoker – 17.00
- SirWatts – 17.00
Each way betting: ¼ odds, first three places. Other players available on request – email support@pokerstars.com. Prices correct at time of writing.
Stephen Fisk, Managing Director of Sports Betting at PokerStars, said: “We’re excited to offer customers the opportunity to bet on online poker tournaments for the first time and the WCOOP $51,000 Super High Roller event is the perfect place to start. It’s already the most talked about online tournament of the year, and with the added spice that having a bet on it brings, fans and players from around the world can rail their favourite player and win money even if they don’t have a spare $51k lying around.”
This is the first time that the PokerStars sports betting team has offered wagers on poker, giving players and fans alike an extra incentive to watch the event on PokerStars this coming weekend. Betting will be available to players in jurisdictions where PokerStars already offers sports betting on PokerStars’ .COM, .EU, and .UK licenses.
The betting market – http://psta.rs/1KIzmWo – will stay open until the official start time of the tournament, which is 12.30 ET on September 20. Once play begins no more bets will be taken until the end of day 1, although the market will be updated and opened again at some stage before the start of day 2. Maximum payout and other rules apply – see http://psta.rs/1KmMOce for full terms and conditions.
RECORD BUY-IN
The $51,000 Super High Roller, which features a $1m guaranteed prize pool, is the biggest ever buy-in for an online poker tournament and has captured the imagination of players, media and poker fans, who are excited to watch one of the most competitive online poker tournaments of all time. Anyone on the site at the time can watch it by going to Online Events > WCOOP > Main Events and opening up event WCOOP-47 [Super High Roller].
WCOOP 2015
The 70-event festival is already nearly half way through, with 32 events completed and more than $25 million in prize money awarded. Notable winners so far include Matt ‘plattsburgh’ Vengrin (second WCOOP title in consecutive years), ‘Ti0373’ (third WCOOP title), Mike ‘goleafsgoeh’ Leah, and Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard. The biggest individual prize of the Championship came last night in WCOOP-25 – a $10,300 High Roller – that was won by German player ‘tobi123456’ for $654,500. Go to http://psta.rs/1JbD03N for full PokerStars Blog reports of every WCOOP event.
The $5,200 No Limit Hold’em Main Event will take place on September 27 at 14.30 ET with a $10m guaranteed prize pool. It’s the most prestigious online poker tournament of the year, which brings together players from across the world in a battle to win a minimum guaranteed first prize of $1.5m, the famous WCOOP gold bracelet, and the title of World Champion for the next 12 months.
Satellites into the tournament are running around the clock and start from just $1. Go to ‘Online Events’ > ‘WCOOP’ > ‘All’ to find the range of qualifiers.
For more information about WCOOP 2015, go to http://psta.rs/1JK20DG or email press@pokerstars.com.
About PokerStars
PokerStars operates the world’s most popular online poker sites, serving the global poker community. Since it launched in 2001, PokerStars has become the first choice of players all over the world, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else and with the best security online. More than 130 billion hands have been dealt on PokerStars, which is more than any other site.
PokerStars.com and PokerStars.eu operate globally under licenses from the Isle of Man and Malta governments, respectively. PokerStars also holds separate government licenses in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
PokerStars is the key brand of Rational Group, which operates gaming-related businesses and brands, including PokerStars, Full Tilt and the European Poker Tour. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Rational Group companies in the UK and Isle of Man won recognition as one of the best workplaces in the UK being awarded a top 25 position by the Great Place to Work Institute’s Best Workplaces – Large category rankings. Rational Group entities in Costa Rica and Dublin also achieved the same accolade in their respective local rankings in 2014. PokerStars is owned by Amaya Inc. (Nasdaq: AYA; TSX: AYA).