The online poker site is forced to cut its once-popular tournament in half as turnout drops
Not every online poker site out there is finding success amid the lack of live poker due to the coronavirus pandemic. The popular online poker site Partypoker has taken a major hit after deciding to cancel one of their flagship tournaments running since November last year. The company gave the ax to its major $1 million GTD Sunday tournament, the MILLION, after only eight months of running.
Perhaps the site is losing preference in front of many appealing online events that are currently running at other sites. The decision to remove the tournament came after the site experienced overlay during the last three Sundays, representing a total of $250,000 in missing revenue. Now, to throw something out there to replace the tournament, Partypoker launched a $109 buy-in $500,000 GTD event, which is almost half the cost of the MILLION entry. However, everything else remains the same regarding the format of the event, which will continue to be phased starting with a dozen Day 1 flights with the final day will be played on Mondays. Also, the players’ names will be displayed, just as they were under the last MILLION iteration.
"We didn’t want to keep adding flights to hit the guarantee over weaker summer months as our strategy is to offer MTT’s with good structures, limited Day 1s and reasonable late registration," said a partypoker spokesperson. "We, therefore, have decided to try something different and change the price point to make it more accessible to a wider group of players," he added.
