The current PokerGO Poker Masters provides another opportunity for the best players in the world to do battle in Las Vegas for millions of dollars, fabled trophies and much-needed PGT Leaderboard as the race for the $1 million Championship Freeroll approaches at the end of this season.
The Poker Masters also sees a brand collaboration between PokerGO and PokerStars, as the market leaders for many years in terms of poker festivals and broadcasters come together in promotion of the 2024 North American Poker Tour (NAPT).
Does this latest brand partnership highlight a changing trend in poker as the future of the game moves towards collaboration instead of rivalry?
Purple Felt Makes Stars Align
If there is one brand in poker that is most open to collaboration over recent years, it is probably PokerGO. Poker’s chief broadcaster already brings us coverage of the World Series of Poker, and the legendary archive that is available to subscribers makes the brand a must for any serious poker fan. In recent years, PokerGO have broadcast poker tournaments for emerging brands like the Celebrity Poker Tour, as well as heavyweights such as the WSOP.
The news that PokerStars would be promoting the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) as part of the 2024 Poker Masters coverage is therefore not unexpected. With eight events taking place and some of the world’s best available to stake exclusively via our staking platform for the event, we’ve already compiled a guide to who you can back at the 2020 Poker Masters.
The 2024 Poker Masters champion will receive not only the famous Purple Jacket and a $25,000 PGT Passport bonus but also a PokerStars NAPT Gold Pass worth in excess of $10,000. With buy-ins that range from $5,100 to $25,200, the event series is sure to attract some superb players but already the opening event has shown that satellite qualifiers can run deep, with two qualifiers who paid a fraction of the entry fee making it heads-up.
Who Gets a Golden Ticket?
The Gold Pass, includes a single entry into the NAPT Las Vegas $5,300 Main Event in November, $2,900 towards hotel accommodation and a $1,800 for other expenses. The NAPT Las Vegas Main Event itself takes place between November 5th and 10th at the Resorts World Las Vegas venue, which has a $3 million guarantee. Subscribers to PokerGO can win a ticket too, with players in PokerStars states such as Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania vying for the opportunity to take part in the NAPT too.
With other events such as a $25,000-entry NAPT Las Vegas Super High Roller and $10,300 buy-in High Roller event, PokerGO have added those PokerStars NAPT events to the PGT leaderboard, meaning that successful players at the PokerStars event could well qualify to win some of that million-dollar freeroll money that is being put up by PokerGO.
It’s a very interesting partnership between PokerStars and PokerGO. Both brands are huge and look only to be growing over the next 12-24 months as they grow tours, ramp up coverage of their festivals and branch out online, with more and more ways to interact with both brands on social media.
Perhaps this brand partnership is both a good guide to where the poker industry currently is and where it is headed.
Is Poker’s Future About Friends or Foes?
In the past, poker was full of rivalries off the felt as well as on it. Forget Phil Hellmuth vs. Daniel Negreanu, the PokerStars vs. Full Tilt Poker was the kind of schoolyard scrap that saw many poker players and fans align with either one side or the other. ‘Stars generally had the bigger tournaments, while the cash game on FTP were the envy of the world.
Full Tilt was edgy and had Phil Ivey. PokerStars was the wholesome cousin, with Daniel Negreanu heading up the Team PokerStars Pros. Eventually, just like Coke vs. Pepsi, one brand had to win, and it was undoubtedly PokerStars. FTP imploded in the Black Friday online poker scandal that rocket the poker world in 2011 and is still felt today, with online poker only now returning on a state-by-state basis with anything nearing real traction.
In the 13 years since the FTP scandal, however, and especially post-pandemic, poker brands are more inclined to work with each other rather than against. There was a time when PokerStars players would only play EPTs and the World Series. The same was true of other brands. Today you’re just as likely to see a video on X from a player representing 888poker or Unibet at EPT Barcelona, on a GGPoker Global Ambassador pitching up at the 2023 WSOP Paradise Main Event.
We could be seeing PokerStars aligning with PokerGO as a counter move to GGPoker’s recent purchase of the WSOP brand. But it’s far more likely that in this new age of poker, with the WSOP having moved to the Strip, the EPT expanding to something of its former glory and GGPoker growing bigger than ever, the growth of poker is more important to poker brands that beating their rivals specifically to each player.
The future of poker is undoubtedly bright. It is also perhaps far more friendly than might have seemed possible around the time of the first poker boom.