Interactive
Canada – Stars Group confirms biggest ever Spring Championship of Online Poker
By Phil - 11 April 2018
The Stars Group has announced that its 2018 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) will offer a guaranteed prize pool of $65m, the largest in PokerStars’ history, and approximately $10m larger than last year’s guarantee.
The annual online event, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, will take place from May 6 through 21 and will also guarantee at least one $1m tournament each day. SCOOP offers tiered buy-in levels for each event, ranging from $2.20 to $25,000.
Five Platinum Passes to the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC), which takes place in January 2019 in the Bahamas, will also be awarded to the main event winners across each buy-in level, the first-placed player on the SCOOP series leader board and the winner of an All-In Shootout Challenge. Each Platinum Pass is worth $30,000 and includes a $25,000 PSPC buy-in, accommodation at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort and approximately $2,000 for travel and expenses.
The record-breaking guaranteed prize pool for the tenth anniversary edition follows last year’s successful SCOOP series where PokerStars delivered the biggest day in online poker history and the largest ever online poker series overall. More than $39 million in prize pools were awarded over a single day and an overall industry record payout of approximately $94 million was awarded across the entire series. Later in 2017, PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) exceeded its advertised guarantee of $60m to pay out approximately $91m, becoming the second largest ever online poker series.
“2017 was a record-breaking year for SCOOP and online poker,” said Rafi Ashkenazi, Chief Executive Officer of The Stars Group. “We’re excited to increase our investment in the poker community again this year by delivering more winning moments during SCOOP 2018, which provides two of the most eagerly anticipated weeks in the online poker calendar.
