Casino City's iGaming Pocket Directory - 2016 Edition

Sponsored by 57 Visit iGamingPocketDirectory.com for more information. POKER In the past, Sunday tournaments like the PokerStars Sunday Million, which guarantees a $1 million prize pool, and tournament series like the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS), Mini FTOPS and World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) have defined the industry, as have multi-table online “grinders” who make a living off their profits on the tables and the benefits they receive in loyalty bonuses. The online poker industry is rapidly changing, however, as sites adopt policies and marketing strategies that cater to recreational players rather than the online multi- table grinders in an attempt to create a healthier ecosystem. Inexperienced players can be put off from the game when they quickly lose their deposits to players whose skill level vastly exceeds their own. As a result, PokerStars introduced the Spin & Go tournament in late 2014, which adds in a lottery-based element for awarding prizes. The three-player, hyper-turbo events start with a spinning wheel which reveals the prize that players are playing for. Most tournaments award the winner with twice the buy-in, but prizes as large as $1 million on a $5 buy-in are possible. In fact, 13 players were made millionaires in PokerStars Spin & Go tournaments in 2015 alone (as of Dec. 14). Other variations that seek to bridge the skill gap in poker include Full Tilt’s “Flipout Tournaments,” where everyone is forced all-in on the first hand and the money bubble bursts after the first hand, Bodog’s “recreational poker model,” where usernames POKER INDUSTRY OVERVIEW