The 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) has given PokerStars another industry record.
Spanning 15 days, the tournament festival hit a number of highs between May 12 and 27. Most impressive was the overall prizepool.
Prior to the start of SCOOP 2019, PokerStars broke out a $75 million war chest. Having lost one of its MTT records to Partypoker at the close of 2018, the operator wasn’t prepared to lose another.
PokerStars Fires Back with SCOOP
Offering a guaranteed $75 million over more than 180 tournaments, SCOOP 2019 was already on course to become one of the largest series ever. However, when the final numbers were in, it became the biggest ever.
Beating last year’s overall prizepool by more than $10 million, the latest festival paid out $105,133,091. Helping to make SCOOP 2019 the richest online festival in history were 1,024,242 entries.
Most impressive of all this year’s entries was Gianluca Speranza. The Italian made the headlines in 2018 when he won the SCOOP High Main Event for more than $1 million.
Looking to repeat that feat, the man known as Tankanza paid $10,300 to defend his title at the end of May. Despite being up against it, he found a way through the 654-entry field to become the first back-to-back SCOOP High Main event winner.
SCOOP Success Keeps PokerStars on Top
As impressive at that victory was, it wasn’t the only double win this year. According to a SCOOP round-up from PokerStars, 15 players, including Mike Leah, won two titles.
Other highlights of the latest spring showdown include:
- Number of SCOOP tournaments in 2019 = 219
- Best return on investment (ROI) = lucascostaf won $21,407 in the $2.20 event #1 for a 9,730X ROI.
- Most dominant nation = Brazil won 36 SCOOP titles in 2019, almost double their closest rivals Russia and the UK (19 each).
- Total amount banked by this year’s event winners = $15,586,276.
- Number of nations represented by SCOOP winners in 2019 = 39.
PokerStars has always enjoyed success with SCOOP. By offering buy-ins at all levels, the festival has become an annual draw for players across the community.
However, breaking a record in 2019 will be seen as significant win. With Partypoker piling on the pressure since its successful Millions Online, PokerStars has been forced to respond.
Although certain ideas have fallen flat, the latest numbers suggest players still love the classics.
Whether the same can be said for future innovations remains to be seen. For now, however, PokerStars can enjoy reasserting its dominance over the online MTT scene.
