Bahamas
THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER® LAUNCHES WSOP® PARADISE
On the heels of a record-shattering summer, the richest, most prestigious and longest-running poker series – the World Series of Poker (WSOP) – is heading to paradise this winter to kick off a new live tournament poker series, WSOP Paradise. The newly minted series, made possible through a partnership with GGPoker, is set to take place from December 3-14, 2023, at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
The new series builds on the momentum generated by the record-breaking 54th annual WSOP which took place at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip this summer. Featuring 15 bracelet events in total, WSOP Paradise will be headlined by a total of $50 million in guaranteed prize pools, including a $5,000 Main Event with a $15 million total prize pool guarantee, and a $1,500 Mystery Bounty with a $5 million guarantee.
In addition, WSOP Paradise will have unparalleled value for High Rollers: A massive $100k event with $5 million guaranteed, a $50k event with $2 million guaranteed, two Pot Limit Omaha events with seven-figure guarantees, and a signature $25,000 GGMillion$ event with a staggering $10 million total prize pool guarantee.
“The summer was an unprecedented success, but the vision is equally as ambitious for WSOP Paradise,” said Ty Stewart, SVP & Executive Director of the WSOP. “We have the strongest online partner in the world, and they are set to send a record number of qualifiers to a live tournament. Atlantis also has a great legacy in poker, and we believe this combination of partners can deliver poker’s most powerful new franchise for years to come. Many players say summer in Vegas is the best time of year. We hope that will only be rivaled by winter in paradise.”
GGPoker, who sent 774 players to the Main Event at this summer’s WSOP, has pledged to send at least 1,000 players to WSOP Paradise. Online qualifiers and tournament promotions, including hotel accommodations with special rates for tournament players will be available at ggpoker.com at a later date.
“GGPoker is delighted to launch WSOP Paradise and welcome hundreds of players from all over the world to Atlantis Paradise Island this December,” said Daniel Negreanu, GGPoker Global Ambassador. “It’s going to be an absolutely amazing experience, the best of poker at one of the world’s most luxurious resorts!”
“Atlantis’ 25th anniversary launches a new chapter for the resort, unveiling a multimillion-dollar transformation of the Atlantis Casino complemented by renovated guestrooms at The Royal and Michelin star chef dining experiences in time for the WSOP Paradise event. We are excited to welcome the WSOP Paradise this winter and look forward to hosting the debut of this premiere tournament series for players and their fans,” said Joe Brunini, Chief Gaming & Customer Development Officer Atlantis Paradise Island, the Bahamas.
The full schedule of events will be announced later this year. The WSOP reserves the right to cancel, change or modify the tournament or any tournament event, in part or in whole, without notice.
Atlantis Ballroom
World Series of Poker Paradise Brings Buzz, Huge Prize Pools and Big Stars to the Bahamas
First WSOP Paradise eclipses $70 million in total prize pool
Main Event Champion to win biggest $5k tournament of 2023
Historic bracelets, strong fields and memorable appearances by poker’s biggest names and sports legends highlight the first winter series for the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Starting on December 3 at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas, WSOP Paradise hosted some of the biggest poker tournaments of 2023 at various buy-in levels and surpassed its promised $50 million guarantee to achieve a total prize pool of more than $70 million.
“From hall of famers winning bracelets to celebrity sightings and a classic Phil Hellmuth entrance to the Main Event, WSOP Paradise exceeded even our own lofty expectations and became the final highlight of an incredible year,” the Senior Vice-President and Executive Director for the WSOP, Ty Stewart, said. “We thank every player who made the trip to the Bahamas to be part of the action and launch our newest tradition, Winter in Paradise.”
Event #1, Mystery Millions, kicked off the poker in paradise action by breaking the record for the largest poker event ever hosted in the Bahamas and things only heated up from there. The winter series saw exceptional turnouts for its high roller events, with many of the tournaments becoming the strongest of the year at their buy-in level. This included Event #3: GGMillion$ High Roller Championship, which was larger than its $25k counterpart at the WSOP in Las Vegas this summer.
All high-roller event entrants and prize pools can be seen below:
Event #3: GGMillion$ High Roller Championship ($25k buy-in)
- 533 entrants
- $13,325,000 prize pool
Event #7: Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em ($50k buy-in)
- 137 entrants
- $6,850,000 prize pool
Event #9: Ultra High Roller No-Limit Hold’em ($100k buy-in)
- 111 entrants
- $11,100,000 prize pool
The inaugural WSOP Paradise No-Limit Hold’em World Championship, better known as the ‘Main Event’, has solidified itself as the largest $5k buy-in poker tournament of 2023, with 3,010 entrants battling for the top prize. The first WSOP Paradise Main Event champion will soon take home a $2 million first-place prize in addition to the highly-coveted Main Event bracelet hand-crafted by Jostens from yellow gold, weighing nearly 95 grams and 494 genuine blue topaz round stones.
The full payout breakdown for the WSOP Paradise Main Event Final Table is as follows:
- 1st: $2,000,000
- 2nd: $1,200,000
- 3rd: $900,000
- 4th: $685,000
- 5th: $510,000
- 6th: $400,000
- 7th: $300,000
- 8th: $250,000
- 9th: $200,000
Although this is just the first edition of WSOP Paradise, players and fans at Atlantis witnessed a familiar scene for a WSOP Main Event on December 9 as Phil Hellmuth made his grand entrance into the Atlantis Ballroom dressed as Poseidon, joined by choreographed dancers, mermaids and a marching band. Other highlights from the series action include Hall of Famer Erik Seidel taking home his tenth career WSOP bracelet after winning Event #7: Super High-Roller No-Limit Hold’em and Japan’s Masashi Oya breaking through to claim his first-ever WSOP bracelet to go along with a massive $2.9 million first-place prize in Event #9: Ultra High-Roller No-Limit Hold’em.
Familiar faces from the sports world also attended WSOP Paradise including 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Tony Parker, two-time WNBA Champion and Las Vegas Aces’ Head Coach Becky Hammon, Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero, FS1’s Nick Wright and more. Parker finished in the money for the first time in a live poker tournament in Event #4: Mini Main Event No-Limit Hold’em and Aguero competed at the feature table for the Main Event with a seat next to Daniel Negreanu.
The excitement surrounding WSOP Paradise builds on a banner year for the WSOP after the series shattered its all-time attendance record for its Main Event in Las Vegas this summer, 17 years after Jamie Gold defeated a crowd of 8,773 entrants in 2006 to take home the prestigious WSOP Main Event bracelet.
Livestreamed coverage for the Main Event continues on GGPoker’s YouTube channel and three post-produced television episodes will air on CBS Sports Network with commentary from legendary poker analysts Lon McEachern and Norman Chad.
Players should follow @WSOP on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram or check WSOP .com for event news and updates.
In Barbados and the government of Prime Minister Mia Mottley soon intends to introduce legislation for the more effective management of the small island nation’s financial and online gambling sectors.
This news was revealed on Friday by the Caribbean country’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ryan Straughn, during the two-day Barbados Risk and Insurance Management Conference. The experienced politician declared that the move will allow the nation to better supervise activities that may well pose ‘significant risks’ to the wider economy following the recent bankruptcy of prominent Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange firm FTX Trading Limited.
Straughn said that the Mottley-led government has had a ‘long withstanding process’ with respect to upgrading its banking and insolvency regimes and hopes to have introduced the new legislation before the end of June in order to put the entire framework ‘on an international standing’.
“In a risk context, we are in the final stages of addressing a couple of key matters,” Straughn told attendees at the Barbados Hilton Resort event. “Equally important and more directly related to risk is a new betting and gaming framework, which we are bringing into play also similarly within that time frame.”
A former economist, Straughn told those at the gathering that the more effective regulation of iGaming is critical due to a recent rise in the proliferation of online gaming activities that have potentially exposed Barbadians to ‘the similar types of risk that is taking place within the high-frequency trading space’.
“We are going to be bringing a new regime with respect to being able to address the risk associated with those things,” Straughn said. “Why are these things important? Because our citizens are currently engaging in e-commerce-type activities that we are not currently capable of regulating.”
Straughn additionally asserted that his department was already liaising with the local telecommunications industry so as to establish a more effectual monitoring system and will be working closely with an undisclosed entity ‘to build capacity and identify skill sets to provide sophisticated support for regulation’. He detailed that such move would allow Barbados to better secure its economic fortune and learn from the experiences of others around the world.
Barbados became a unitary parliamentary republic in November of 2021 and Straughn stressed that local regulators are to be tasked with remaining vigilant as new and more sophisticated businesses enter the market. He nevertheless finished by acknowledging the ever-present potential for significant loss and major economic damage from activities such as cryptocurrency.
“There will always be a risk…you can never totally eliminate risk,” Straughn said. “As a government, we want to facilitate the improvement of technology and the investment in technology in order for us to do things faster but achieving that efficiency cannot be at the expense of the financial system or the persons who actively participate in that space.”
Launch in Bahamas represents newest online gaming market for Bragg
ORYX Gaming, a Bragg Gaming Group company, has launched its exclusive iGaming content in the Bahamas with the country’s largest operator, Island Luck.
Customers of the major Bahamian operator now have access to the full portfolio of ORYX’s exclusive content developed by its in-house studios as well as from ORYX’s premium partners.
The launch follows the company’s recent receipt of its certification and approval to offer its products and services to operators in the Caribbean nation.
The rapid go-live with Island Luck is testament to the flexibility of the ORYX RGS and the appeal of its iGaming content. Bragg is in the process of securing additional agreements for the distribution of its content with online casino operators in the Bahamas.
Established in 2009, Island Luck is licensed by the Gaming Board for the Bahamas and is the largest gaming company in the country, offering online sports betting, casino and lottery throughout the islands.
The Bahamas player base has a similar demographic to the United States and Canada, markets which Bragg expects to target more widely later in the year following its recently announced license in Ontario, and with further license applications underway in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Chris Looney, Chief Commercial Officer at Bragg, said: “Taking our content live in the Bahamas so shortly after receiving regulatory approval is a fantastic achievement and highlights the ability we have to scale our RGS into new markets as well as the popularity of our exclusive games portfolio.
“Island Luck is a great partner for us with local know-how and a growing customer base and we are very excited about introducing our content in the Bahamas for the first time together with them. This is just the first partnership of many as we look forward to establishing ourselves as the premier supplier on the island.”
Cézár Veres , Chief Business Development Officer at Island Luck, said: “As soon as we heard about ORYX’s content receiving the green light in the Bahamas we knew we wanted to partner with them and bring their content to our customers.
“With a diverse games library from some really talented studios, our ability to offer their content strengthens our impressive portfolio offerings and helps us continue to be the operator of choice to local players.”
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