WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF ONLINE POKER 2019 BECOMES BIGGEST IN POKERSTARS HISTORY

PokerStars awards more than $130 million across WCOOP and Galactic Series in record-breaking year

ONCHAN, Isle of Man – September 25, 2019 – PokerStars' most prestigious online series, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), has awarded a record-breaking $104.7 million across 20 days of top tournament action. The series surpassed its $75 million guarantee by almost $30 million when more than 1.2 million total entries pushed the prize pool into the PokerStars history books. The WCOOP record was previously held by last year’s series, which generated a prizepool of over $99 million.

Series highlights include:

• 1,219,969 entries
• Total prize pool of $104,733,898
• $11.18 million awarded in the Main Event High, making it the biggest COOP Main Event since 2010

New UFC themed tournaments awarded four packages worth $3,500, alongside big money prizes, to UFC® 244: Masvidal vs. Diaz in New York, where PokerStars UFC Ambassador Johnny Walker will be in action The Main Event High is still running, with $1.6 million up for grabs for first place.

SOUTHERN EUROPEAN SUCCESS

Meanwhile, Southern Europe also enjoyed success with the Galactic Series in Spain, France, and Portugal awarding €19,419,783 over 23 days of play. The series exceeded its advertised €15 million guarantee and also beat last year’s €17,105,960 prize pool. In addition, Italy’s Galactic Series broke its €3 million guarantee to hit €3,799,329.

A RECORD-BREAKING YEAR

PokerStars, the flagship poker brand of The Stars Group, has enjoyed several successes this year. In January, PokerStars broke the record for the largest-ever prize pool for a $25,000 buy-in poker tournament when the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) awarded $26.5 million. In April, the 13th Anniversary edition of its Sunday Million online tournament became the second biggest in the series’ history, totalling 61,342 entries with a prize pool of $12,268,400. In May, its Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) paid out $105 million, the first-ever online poker tournament to beat the $100 million milestone, while the company also celebrated dealing its 200 billionth hand.

Earlier this month the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona set a new PokerStars record as the biggest stop in the EPT’s 16-year history, awarding more than €52.9 million to players from 95 different countries.

To keep up to date with all WCOOP news visit the PokerStars Blog.

For further information, please contact press@pokerstars.com

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