WSOP 2025: The Schedule is Here, GGPoker Preserves Traditions

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) returns to the Las Vegas Strip in 2025, running from May 27 to July 16 at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas casinos. The 56th WSOP will once again crown millionaires, award gold bracelets, and, of course, determine the world champion of the year.

GGPoker, the new owner of the WSOP, has taken a conservative approach regarding the championship. The 2025 WSOP schedule was released on Monday, and the biggest surprise was that GGPoker has had minimal influence on it.

The summer’s Las Vegas series will feature exactly 100 bracelet events. Six new tournaments have been added, including two new High Rollers, a PLO Double Board Bomb Pot, and a Super Turbo Bounty event.

Perhaps the most interesting addition is the Battle of the Ages, where Day 1A is for players over 50, while Day 1B is for those under 50. The HORSE event has been replaced by TORSE, where Triple Draw takes the place of Hold’em in this classic limit mixed rotation game.

Apart from these, only a few minor adjustments have been made. The Casino Employees opening event has been expanded to include anyone employed in the gaming, hospitality, or media industries. The Independence Day Celebration has been rebranded as the Summer Celebration. The number of freezeout events has slightly decreased, some re-entry options have been expanded, additional flights have been added, and the rake has increased slightly. Otherwise, the program largely resembles last year’s.

Classic events such as the Mystery Millions, Colossus, Monster Stack, and Mini Main are making a return, alongside the prestigious $50,000 Poker Players Championship, Gladiators of Poker, and Millionaire Maker. Naturally, the $10,000 NL Hold’em Main Event remains untouched.

Keeping WSOP’s core events intact is a smart strategy for a new owner managing such a historic brand. Nevertheless, industry insiders expected more changes. For example, PokerNews predicted just hours before the schedule announcement that Flip & Go, one of GGPoker’s signature formats, would return. However, it was left out of the schedule.

Another surprise was that GGPoker’s branding was barely present in the schedule announcement. The official press release did not mention GGPoker at all. There was no reference to last year’s major acquisition, not even in the footer. No GGPoker executives were quoted, and the release was posted on wsopplus.com, a domain associated with former Caesars executives who moved to NSUS after the acquisition.

GGPoker remains the exclusive international online satellite provider, as in previous years. However, there is no indication that ClubGG, GGPoker’s subscription-based sweepstakes site, will play a role in online qualification.

Broadcasting rights remain unchanged, though this could have been an area for major transformation. PokerGO continues to hold exclusive rights for WSOP television coverage, while PokerNews retains the rights to live hand-for-hand updates.

The WSOP Europe schedule was also announced. The event will take place from September 12 to October 8 at King’s Casino in the Czech Republic. The program includes 15 bracelet events, including the €10,350 WSOP Europe Main Event, which has a €6,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Although GGPoker has so far not positioned itself prominently within the WSOP brand, one major announcement is still pending: the WSOP Online schedule. Online poker players are eagerly awaiting details on how many online bracelets will be awarded this year. Many expect GGPoker to reduce their number. Last year, 115 bracelets were awarded online, nearly as many as in the live WSOP events. Some believe this diminishes the prestige of the WSOP.