NSUS Group Finalizes Purchase of World Series of Poker brand

On August 2, 2024, the NSUS Group – parent company and operator of leading online poker platform GGPoker – agreed a deal with Caesars Entertainment to purchase the World Series of Poker brand. It took a while for the deal to be finalized but the purchase has now been officially completed as of October 29 for the sum of 500 Million US Dollars.

Key Details of the NSUS Group Acquisition

According to the press release of GGPoker, the transaction includes $250 Million US Dollars in cash and the same amount as promissory note due five years after the transaction’s closing secured by the WSOP intellectual property assets being sold. Caesars will retain the right to host the annual WSOP in Las Vegas for the next 20 years and “will continue to enjoy preferential rights to host live WSOP Circuit events going forward.”

As part of the deal, Caesars will also receive a license from NSUS to operate the existing WSOP.com online poker platforms in the US states of Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania “for the foreseeable future”. The GGPoker software is also used to power the WSOP online poker client in Ontario as well, but none of these regulated territories have access to the global online poker pool.

GGPoker Takes Over WSOP

Throughout the last few years, GGPoker and WSOP had already formed a close-knit partnership with WSOP as well as WSOP Circuit events taking place on the GGPoker client. They have also become the main sponsor of the annual live poker summer camp in Las Vegas and took over the rights to host online satellites from 888poker in 2020. As part of the schedule in Sin City, GGPoker already had a sponsored event included and now fully take over the ship.

As far as the WSOP in Las Vegas is concerned, nothing much will change in the immediate future as the move to the new venue at Paris and Horseshoe on the Las Vegas was already wrapped up. Three key executives will transition to a new NSUS subsidiary in charge of running the show including Ty Stewart (CEO), Gregory Chochon (COO), and Erik Eidissen (Communications Manager). They have more than 30 years of combined experience managing the WSOP brand and will lead the way in the transition period.

What To Expect Under GGPoker

It can be expected that GGPoker will ramp up the promotions towards the WSOP live series in Las Vegas, having previously sent more than 1,000 qualifiers to the WSOP Main Event already. One such example of a more aggressive approach can already be seen in the upcoming WSOP Paradise on The Bahamas, which features the $25,000 Super Main Event with a historic $50 Million guarantee – the largest in live poker history. This strategy of big numbers has served the operator well throughout the last few years to become the undisputed number one ahead of PokerStars in the online arena.

With the aforementioned WSOP Paradise on Paradise Island, they are also forcing a direct competition with the WPT World Championships at Wynn Las Vegas for the second year in a row. This time, the schedule with 15 gold bracelet events up for grabs is more geared towards the high-stakes community whereas the WPT will set a new benchmark with the ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll. Having multiple high-profile options is great for the players, but both schedules overlap too much this time and require a definite preference.

Global Expansion On The Horizon?

Whether or not other major live poker events will be affected by this takeover remains to be seen. The WSOP Circuit has already been established as mid-stakes tour on a global scale and may expand to further new destinations. So far, the GGPoker presence was not felt heavily during any of these stops and only a handful of qualifiers were sent to the WSOP Europe in the last few years.

The latter has been taking place at the King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, for the last few years and itself also witnessed a change in ownership this year as well. Perhaps, a change of locations to a new venue within Europe is in the cards or a return of the WSOP Asia-Pacific, which only ran two times in 2013 and 2014 at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. Considering the fact that igaming developer NSUSLAB is based in South Korea, this scenario may not be too far-fetched.