King’s Resort Owner Leaves Gaming Industry, Selling Shares

King’s Resort has been around for over two decades and made a name for itself in the Czech Republic. However, in an unexpected move, its founder and majority shareholder, Leon Tsoukernik, announced his sale of the shares. We explore how this sale will impact the Resort and what players can expect.

King’s Resort opened in 2003 and started hosting and offering poker events in 2006. In 2018, it was renamed King’s Resort. Over the years, Tsoukernik expanded the Resort until it became the largest poker room in Europe, boasting more than 160 poker tables.

Recently, it has become even more popular. It’s largely thanks to its large-scale poker tournaments and impressive seven-figure guarantees. These events include the legendary World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE).

King’s Resort hosted its first WSOPE tournament in 2015 and officially became the venue in 2017. It has hosted the WSOPE every year since, except for 2020, when the pandemic forced a halt on activities. 

Instead, the casino hosted the WSOP Hybrid Main Event International edition’s final table. While eight of GGPoker’s online qualifiers travelled to Rozvadov for the final table, Damian Salas won. The 2024 WSOPE will also occur at the casino resort from September 18th to October 9th. It’ll boast 15 bracelet events per the norm and a €10,350 buy-in Main Event with a €5 million prize pool.

Since then, GGPoker has frequently collaborated with the Resort. The online poker room sends multiple qualifiers to the WSOPE tournament annually. It also helped the resort gain its online gaming licence, which it finally used this year.

In the press release of Leon’s exit, it announced the launch of its iGaming platform. The King’s Entertainment Group partnered with The Bragg Gaming Group. This company is a turnkey technology solutions provider in iGaming content. 

Kingsbet will be live in the Czech Republic and is the first iGaming platform to secure a licence under the new regulations. PokerStars is preparing to leave the market, and partypoker left last year. This will make Kingsbet one of the country’s only iGaming platforms available to poker players.

A German news outlet first reported the news on June 12th. The company officially confirmed Tsoukernik’s exit on June 14th.

The owner of this company sold most of his 60% shares to Scott Hanna, who has participated in everyday activities almost since the Resort’s start. Several other silent investors also bought shares for a rumoured price between €300 and €400. 

This deal includes King’s Group Entertainment, Kingsbet, and the venues in Rozvadov, Admiral Rozvadov, and Prague. The press release stated his reason for leaving as “his decision to exit the gaming sector to pursue new business ventures.”

Luckily for players, Tsoukernik’s selling his shares won’t impact the Resort’s daily operations much. The activities will continue as usual, and the venue is still set to host the WSOPE in three months. While we say goodbye to the icon who built this venue from the ground up, we look forward to how it’ll continue to develop from here on.