Today, almost every person walking into a casino has a mobile phone. That’s particularly true for those who play poker, which skews younger than most gambling activities. So it makes sense that an event that arguably is the epicenter of the poker world would lead with digital innovations.
For 47th annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, which begins May 31, WSOP officials have announced a number of changes:
- More opportunities to play online poker while also sitting at WSOP live events
- A way for players to show their (continually updated) chip counts to online viewers
- More live web streaming
- An online system for players to queue up when the payout line gets too long.
“I think the big thing here is traditionally the gaming industry is very slow to adapt,” said Seth Palanksy, WSOP Vice President of Corporate Communications. “It’s because it is heavily regulated, and rightfully so, the threat of any new technology is always perceived as just that, a threat.
“But as time goes on, and that technology becomes widely accepted, we all have to adapt and figure out how to effectively incorporate it while striking the delicate balance of ensuring everything remains on the up and up.”
The details:
* WSOP.com Online Poker in Nevada: The ability to play real-money online poker in Nevada has been around for several years, but the 2016 WSOP marks the first time players truly have an online schedule crafted based on their known poker playing habits while in Las Vegas during the WSOP, Palansky says. More than 500 events, featuring $2 million in guarantees, have been scheduled on WSOP.com between May 25 and July 10.
* WSOP ChipIn: During WSOP Gold Bracelet events, players can include their chip count on the official WSOP chip count list on WSOP.com, so their followers don’t have to keep checking for updates on social media, and the players don’t have to text this information.
* “Live at the WSOP” Web Streaming: This year will see a more free-flowing format, attempting to show viewers all that is happening inside the venue on a particular day, not just at the final table.
* eQueue Payout Process: Players can be added to the payout list if they have the necessary payout information already on file. Text messages will summons players when their payout is ready for pickup. (The WSOP will be paying out to 15 percent of the field in tournaments this year; most tournaments top out at 10 percent. Last year, their Colossus tournament paid out 2,241 places, making for long lines at the cage.)
So the WSOP is diving headfirst into the digital arena. Given that online poker continues to chip away at its legal walls and detractors, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of the WSOP’s innovations become standards at tournaments around the world.
“The industry figures out the threats and concerns first, addresses the mechanisms needed to ensure compliance and proper oversight, and then we walk with them, and eventually run,” Palansky says. “We’re starting to see regulators really understand where the future of the industry is going and how we need to all be ‘digital’ in our environment if we are going to attract guests moving forward.”
