The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has issued a press release stating that the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) event will not be held in 2014, and instead it will share center stage with the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (WSOP-APAC) on a bi-annual basis.
It’s been two years since I worked at a buoyant World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) event back in 2011. It was the first time the event had been held outside of London in it’s short five year history, and the doom mongers were predicted a woeful showing in Cannes.
The inaugural Cannes event it was a resounding success, and I assumed there would be a happy-ever-after ending, but instead the event shifted its anchor and dumped it in a Parisian suburb called Enghian-les-Bains, and the doom mongers returned.
Whilst working at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Grand Prix de Paris I asked several French journalists about the Parisian WSOPE experience and they were all unanimous in voice when they told me not to expect the WSOPE to ever return to that part of the world.
I was told that the event was listless, lacked player numbers and any form of oomph that has made the WSOP the biggest brand in the world of poker. So it comes as no surprise that the biggest brand in the world of poker has announced a major change to the way it does business with its international tournaments.
Starting with immediate effect the WSOPE and WSOP-APAC will operate in tandem by sharing the non-American WSOP events on a bi-annual basis. The second WSOP-APAC event will take place at the Crown Melbourne October 1-17, 2014, and will feature 10-gold bracelet events.
‘”We are excited to return to Melbourne in 2014 for WSOP APAC and the beginning of a new era for our international championships’ said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. ‘The WSOP standard is bigger, better and different. Moving to a rotational approach, with one international event per year allows for better organization and more marketing in each region. We also want to do right by the players, and provide more value for their travel dollar. There is a glut of poker tournaments around the world, and our vision is to each year put on a single global showcase that can’t be missed.’
With the poker circus jammed packed with live poker tournaments it’s a sensible move by the WSOP, and it follows in the footsteps of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) decision to hold fewer European Main Events this season.
The feedback from the poker community has been sensible, with everyone in unison that the changes are a good thing for both the WSOP and poker in general. There is even talk of removing the ‘E’ and ‘APAC” acronyms and renaming the non-American tour WSOP-International, to allow the move into other areas of the globe such as Africa and South America.
Crown Melbourne Chief Operating Officer, Xavier Walsh said today ‘Crown is once again proud and excited about this partnership between two industry leaders to create another premier poker event in this region. The new scheduling sits perfectly within the Melbourne events calendar, at the tail end of the Australian Rules Football finals and the beginning of the internationally renowned Spring Racing Carnival. This provides Crown with significant exposure in Asia, Europe and America, which will in turn form an integral part of Crown’s global marketing strategy to attract additional international visitors to Australia and Crown Melbourne.’
World Series of Poker Mobile App Transferring to Playtika
As of 20th Dec 2013 the EA Sports WSOP mobile app will no longer be available and players are being advised to install a newer version of the game that is based on the Playtika network.
Players can transfer all of their data and history to the new game, which by all accounts is exactly the same as the EA version.
EA transferred global rights and ownership of its WSOP game for mobile devices and Facebook back in the Summer.
