The World Poker Tour and LivingItLovingIt are rolling out a brand new format of poker known as Multi-Venue Series, and the first event to delve into this new concept will be the Season XV WPT National Iberia Main Event.
In conjunction with the World Poker Tour (WPT), event management and consultancy outfit LivingItLovingIt (LILI), are about to roll out a fresh new approach to live tournament poker, and I love it.
For far too long, tournament poker organisers have been expressing their opinions, and not saying what the customers wants to hear. They have created tournaments and events they believe their customers will desire, instead of first understanding their customer’s problems and desired outcomes and delivering on those two specifics.
What we have been left with is a lot of noise, sameness, and an industry that fails to understand their customer’s worldview because they aren’t listening.
LILI plan to change that with the creation of Multi Venue Series (MVS). It does what it says on the tin, creating a single tournament playing out over a series of venues, culminating in a venue specific finale.
By listening to the customer, LILI understands that players need to keep costs as low as possible. One way of accomplishing this is to allow them to play in their local casino, only incurring the need to travel, when they have the cash to spare because they have already made the money in the event.
Now, you may be thinking you have seen this all before?
You haven’t.
It will be the first multi-series event where, thanks to BRAVO technology, and a lot of hard work on behalf of those involved, all the tournaments will play out over the same time frame, using the same clock and structure.
The Iberian Peninsula Host
The WPT will host the inaugural MVS events across the Iberian Peninsula. The Season XV WPT National Iberia Main Event will be a €675+€75 buy-in carrying a €1m Guarantee.
The first iteration of this cool idea will be spread across three venues: the Gran Casino, Madrid, Spain, the Casino Espinho, Portugal, and the Casino Barcelona, Spain. It marks the WPT’s first foray into Portugal.
The three events will play out May 12-15, 2016. Each venue till host two starting flights on May 12 & 13. Play will continue until approx. 7% of the field remains on May 15. At this time, the clocks will cease ticking across all three venues, and those fortunate to make the cut will travel to the Gran Casino, Madrid for the Grand Final on May 21-22 to crown a winner.
Two more MVS events are planned on the Iberian Peninsula, with Grand Finals taking place in Casino Espinho (Oct 2016), and Casino Barcelona (Jan 2017).
Neil Barrett, Managing Director, LILI, and the primary mind muscle behind the idea, said it wasn’t the easiest of tasks trying to consult and coordinate with three different venues, but believes, thanks to the BRAVO technology and the WPT’s ‘expert tournament direction’ the events will be a hit.
Hermance Blum, WPT Europe General Manager, believes the WPT’s ‘constant evolution’ makes it easier for the innovation of the MVS to fit snugly into their product. Blum has made the shortlist for the upcoming Global Poker Index (GPI) European Poker Award for ‘Industry Person of the Year’.
