The poker sites haven’t received the response they anticipated to their ongoing tournaments
This year has been quite different for the World Poker Tour (WPT) since the organization hasn’t been able to continue with its regular live tournament schedule. Therefore, to offer something to its followers, WPT partnered up with PokerStars to run the PokerStars’ Stadium Series, which is currently running; however, without the expected success. Over the past couple of weeks, the series has been reporting huge overlays in most of its tournaments. According to data shared by PRO, these tournaments have been reporting some of the largest overlays seeing in recent online poker history; the first two weeks of Stadium along with the WPT World Online Championships (WOC) have reported more than $2 million in missed guarantees.
That number has continued to grow as the series continues, and the combined overlay is currently at $2.5 million.
At least half of the Stadium Series events did not reach its target guaranteed. In addition to those overlays, PokerStars has been running its "ticket drop" marketing campaign, which was announced at the beginning of the series. The company offered $2 million in Stadium Series ticket giveaways, but, given the circumstances, it sounds like a lot of cash to be given away. It might be the first time in online poker history where players are being granted such large giveaways for playing in tournaments.
Another reason for the giant overlays, besides the recent drop in popularity experienced by PokerStars, is the fact that WSOP.com is currently hosting its World Series of Poker (WSO) Online Bracelet Series. WSOP is the largest poker tournament organizer in the world and it makes sense that people prefer playing these events.
