The World Series of Poker and GGPoker are getting the band back together in a joint venture in the soon-to-be-launched Ontario online casinos space.
The WSOP and GGPoker have been paired in the past with one of those occasions notably being was when they ran parallel online tournaments for the 2020 WSOP Main Event in a year when the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on in-person poker playing.
WSOP.com ran a portion of the online tournament for United States players and GGPoker ran the International section of the online tournament for ROW (rest-of-the-world) players. A live final table was eventually held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
On April 4, an expanded Ontario online poker and iGaming market is scheduled to launch.
Part of the iGaming offerings available on April 4 will be internet poker for players located within the province.
Approval in Ontario
WSOP has already been approved by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. It is one of the 16 operators listed on the commission’s website. Others with approval include BetMGM Ontario, FanDuel Ontario, PointsBet Canada and theScore.
For its part, WSOP will partner with GGPoker for a WSOP-branded presence in the Ontario market with games being powered by GGPoker, according to published reports. Ontario players who are already with GGPoker will be able to transfer their accounts to WSOP.CA once the new poker room is launched, according to reports quoting from a GGPoker news release.
One benefit for Ontario online poker players will be that they will be automatically enrolled into the Caesars Rewards loyalty program, according to reports. The WSOP is part of Caesars Entertainment.
WSOP Tournaments Available
The marriage of the WSOP and GGPoker in Canada also will also give Ontario players opportunities to play in WSOP tournaments and satellites, according to reports.
Daniel Negreanu, one of world’s best-known poker players and an Ontario native, is a GGPoker ambassador who also has a decades-long association with WSOP Ontario. He has won six WSOP bracelets and has cashed in 148 WSOP events. So, it’s safe to say that Negreanu’s star power will be another unifying factor between GGPoker and the WSOP.
Ontario online poker players will be playing against only players who are within the province but with Ontario having a population of about 14.6 million people, the pool of players should be a substantial enough to create a healthy poker-playing environment.
