Poker has become a global game and nobody knows that better than the World Series of Poker.
Recently, the WSOP celebrated a landmark achievement in the company’s history with the staging of its first ever Asian event, the WSOP Asia Pacific at Crown Casino in Melbourne. The WSOP has already turned WSOP Europe into a mainstay in the poker calendar and there’s no reason why WSOP Asia-Pacific won’t be any different. The brand name is there and most important of all, the cache of being the WSOP goes a long way in building trust with poker players in the region.
“It’s never easy launching new events in a new part of the world but we had a great partner in Crown over there in Melbourne who are great at what they do,” WSOP’s Seth Palansky told CalvinAyre.com correspondent Tatjana Pasalic recently at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
“We feel like we found a great operator and a great marketplace for poker in that part of the world.” It’s no secret that the WSOP is hoping that it can reach the enormous poker market of Asia the same way it did Europe seven years ago, which in itself has grown to become one of the most premier poker circuits in that region.
For next year, Palansky expects the WSOP Asia-Pacific to be bigger and better that it was in its debut foray. Expectations are certainly high, especially after the successful staging of the WSOP event in Melbourne that saw prominent pros like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu win coveted WSOP bracelets.
The growth of poker all over the world doesn’t just mean that the WSOP will pack its bags and go where the players are. On the flip side, players from all over the world, particularly in Asia, have no problem returning the favor by going to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“We expect over 400 players from Asia directly into the Main Event through various promotional activities we’ve been doing in that market place,” Palansky said.
Speaking of Las Vegas and the US for that matter, Tatyana also broached the topic of regulations in the US in light of the growing number of operators that are now offering real-money gaming, including the WSOP. Like everybody else, Palansky made no bones about his preference to see a federal solution.
But not everybody gets what they prefer and with regulations looking more and more likely to be headed towards a state-by-state basis, Palansky is no less confident will grow in due time similar to the expansion of land-based gaming.
