PokerStars Galactic Series a Success, Awards Nearly €17 Million
Last month, PokerStars launched the largest-ever online poker series for players in the newly joined Southern European shared liquidity market. The Galactic Series offered up 186 events from Aug. 26 - Sept. 13 and dished out €16,973,768 in prize money, nearly €2 million more than the €15 million guaranteed.
The series drew 50,612 players in total with the €1.5 million guaranteed Main Event drawing 6,430 entries. It was the largest single-event guarantee to hit the shared liquidity market, and the French contingent showed that they came to play. Five French players made the final table, and the top four finishers were French.
Series Highlights
A total of 42 events were won by French players across the series, with Spain claiming 30 event wins and Portugal taking 20. Spain's ‘SpadeJack10’ captured the first title of the series, winning the Sunday Warm-Up for €24,864. The final Midnight Express event winner was ‘eduardo7673’ from Portugal, who finished strong with a score of €6,988.
Other successful event highlights include the Sept. 2 Sunday Special that surpassed its €350,000 guarantee by more than €20,000 and the Sept. 13 Super Thursday that had a posted guarantee of €150,000 which it exceeded by almost €100,000. The €10 Classico events were also a hit, drawing 15,000 entries on average across three Sunday editions.
“Sharing liquidity among these three markets continues to allow us to offer our players the most attractive tournaments with the biggest guarantees.”
According to PokerStars, shared liquidity was responsible in great part for the success of the series.
“Sharing liquidity among these three markets continues to allow us to offer our players the most attractive tournaments with the biggest guarantees,” said Severin Rasset, director of Poker innovation and operations at The Stars Group. “We are thankful that our players supported us, especially for the Main Event, which saw incredible attendance figures. See you soon for the next series!”
While the next series has yet to be announced, it seems the online poker giant plans to continue to increase the attractiveness of offerings in the new shared European market. The Galactic Series built upon the success of the previous series launched in Southern Europe that included the Trio Series, the SCOOP in France and Spain, and the France Espania Hold'em Series (FRESH), all of which beat their posted guarantees.
The Stars Group owns a majority shareholding in iBus Media.
