History of the creation of the WSOPE poker tournament

The World Series of Poker Europe is a series of tournaments organised as part of the WSOP. The main feature is that it takes place only in Europe. The tournament itself is relatively new, but nonetheless, it has become very popular and winning it is as prestigious as winning the World Series. The main advantage of WSOPE for European players is that they don’t have to fly thousands of kilometres to the USA to take part in the prestigious tournament and fight for the main prize. Since 2007, the equally prestigious event has been held in London.

History of WSOPE

In the early 2000s, the WSOP World Series was outdated and in urgent need of major changes. These came to a head in 2004 when Harrah’s Entertainment purchased the rights to the WSOP as well as the London Club International. Almost immediately thereafter, the creation of the World Series of Poker in Europe was announced. It was an interesting and important decision. After all, casinos in America and Europe are very different. However, with all the uniqueness of the new tournament, the organizers needed to preserve the main traditions of the series.

It is worth noting that the creators of the WSOPE series took a certain risk. The fact that at that time in Europe there were already held several tournaments and it was rather difficult to compete with them. Much of the popularity of WSOPE was due to the main prize, which was as valuable as the WSOP award.

In 2007, another big deal came to light. At that time Harrah’s Entertainment merged with Betfair which at the time was one of the leaders in online poker in Europe. As a result of the merger, the first European Series was held in the same year. The deal between the two companies was also facilitated by a peculiarity of American laws. According to them, poker rooms were not allowed to fund and transfer money to offline tournaments. This led to a decline in the popularity of the World Series. After all, many players got to the main tournament through satellites. And since the WSOPE was held in Europe, American laws did not apply to it. Thanks to this, the winners of the satellites were able to take part in the series.

Besides, in USA gambling is available only for people 21 and older. In Europe, on the other hand, anyone who is over 18 years old can play. This allowed a lot of young players to be attracted to the WSOPE, which increased the popularity of the series. For example, Annette Obrestad, a Norwegian poker player, won the first championship of the Main Event. She was only 18 at the time. 2007 is also significant because it was the year that the gold bracelet was played outside the USA.

The very first WSOPE event not only won popularity among European players but also among poker players from all over the world. Within a year, Danish player Jesper Haugaard won the European and World Championships. The WSOPE organizers didn’t stop there and announced that they were planning to make the tournament even more original and unusual. In 2009, they confirmed their words and held a team competition. It was a unique event as such a format had never been played before. This was the first time teams from Europe and USA competed for the title.

WSOPE prizes and awards

The winner of the European Series receives the same gold bracelet as the top player in the World Series. There is no distinction between the awards, not only in terms of appearance but also in terms of prestige. Winners of the WSOPE receive the same status as World Series champions. That is why there is a common tally of awards received at both tournaments among the top poker players.

The main event of the WSOPE is the No Limit Texas Hold’em event. The winner of this event becomes the European champion. For the first time, the top prize went to Annette of Norway, who earned $1 million in the tournament. The next year the winner was John Juand, who received $869,000.

One difference between the European Series and the World Series is the smaller number of preliminary tournaments. At the same time, they are held in a special style, which attracts a large number of spectators. The European Championship itself gathers the best poker players, which makes it very tense and challenging. But winning a tournament like this is particularly prized among professional poker players.