What will happen to the World Poker Tour after the change of ownership?

The world famous WPT tournament series has recently acquired its new owner and will come under its full control in the new year. At the same time, regular players are unlikely to experience any changes after that, since they will affect, first of all, the internal structure of the company itself and the management team.

Who was WPT sold to?

It is important to say right away that this situation is not new for this world poker series. So, for example, at one time about nine years ago, the rights to this brand were bought by the poker room partypoker, having paid for this a round sum in the region of 12.3 million dollars. This was followed by the sale of WPT to another Chinese company, OurGame International, this time at a cost of $ 35 million. The Chinese owners intended to use this trademark to promote their services in the Asian gambling market.

The next owner of the game series should be Black Ridge Acquisition Corp, which, apparently, also has its own special plans for this brand. Judging by the history of transactions of this company, it is engaged in the acquisition and promotion of promising businesses, after which it sells them to other companies. Together with the World Poker Tour series itself, they also acquired Allied Esports itself, with a total deal worth about $ 150 million. It should be borne in mind that these figures are approximate, because nowhere else is there any exact information about all the details of the transaction.

Lil Berman, an experienced businessman from the gambling segment, who is now 77 years old, oversees the success of this purchase. In addition to his entrepreneurial experience, he also has a long history of personal poker, which Lil has been involved in since the 80s of the last century. Berman managed to win three WSOP gold bracelets during this time and rightfully entered the general Poker Hall of Fame.

Development of WPT after another change of ownership

First, the name of BRAC will now be changed to Allied Esports Entertainment Inc, after which the company's shares will be listed for sale through the Nasdaq. The very same game series, according to Ken DeKubellis, will not change in any way, that is, these innovations will remain invisible for the players. At the same time, the company's field of activity will be re-qualified into the section of e-sports disciplines.

In his clarifying interview, Ken also said that the company will now pursue its goal also to monetize game views. According to various estimates, at the moment all over the world, according to many analysts, there are about 40 million active poker players, but there are more than two billion people who are fond of e-sports, and 400 million of them really play quite a lot and have a great interest in e-sports disciplines ...

Allied Esports Entertainment Inc intends to combine the experience of the World Poker Tour series with other examples from the world of eSports poker. Thus, they will be able to provide their organizational services, helping to hold special events, while allowing them to use their online platform through which they can receive money for published content. All this can be safely called a specific event agency in the poker environment.

By the way, back in 2017, there were many rumors that the World Poker Tour and Allied Esports intend to unite. At the same time, the regular WPT participants will not expect any serious shocks in terms of modernizing the gameplay itself. More specifically, in the Russian case, the WPT is still being run by the former owner of partypoker. By the way, already at the beginning of the coming year, on January 18, the Russian WPT Series starts, the guaranteed prize fund in which will exceed 1,854,500,000 rubles. It will take place in a prestigious Sochi casino.