Weekly Poker Roundup: June 4, 2018

2018 WSOP Up and Running

The 2018 World Series of Poker kicked off this past week as thousands of poker hopefuls flock to the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to try to grab their poker dreams. Satellites began on Tuesday, but the actual bracelet events got underway Wednesday with the $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em and $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty tournaments. As of this writing, the winners of those two events have already won their hardware and the third event is nearing an end.

The $10,000 Main Event will have three starting flights, as has been the case the last several years, running July 2^nd through July 4^th. On July 5^th, those who made it through Days 1A and 1B will meet in their respective Days 2A and 2B. Both flights will run in the Rio at the same time, but the fields from each will not mix. Da 2C will be on July 6^thand then all Day 2 survivors will combine for Day 3 on July 7^th. The final table will begin July 12^th and proceed for three days; this is the second year with no November Nine (since the advent of the November Nine, of course).

Nine events are new to the schedule this year and five have been removed, though most of the missing events won’t be missed, as two are $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em events and two are $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em – there are still plenty of those on the schedule. The $1 million Big One for One Drop is also back this year.

Poker Central Announces 2018 WSOP Streaming Schedule

Speaking of the World Series of Poker, shortly before the start of the festivities, Poker Central released its complete streaming schedule for its PokerGO subscription service. Poker Central and ESPN are teaming up again this year on live coverage, with each covering part of every day of the Main Event (ESPN will broadcast the entire final table).

Where PokerGO adds a bunch more content is before the Main Event. Poker Central will stream sixteen final tables of other events throughout the WSOP. The first several will be No-Limit Hold’em events, but after that, it is a wide variety, from mixed games to Lowball Draw to Stud, most of it’s there. The $50,000 Poker Players Championship final table is also on the schedule.

“We’re eager to continue our live coverage of the WSOP on PokerGO for the second year running. Our expanded coverage schedule including a wide array of poker variants will give our viewers even more opportunities to follow all the action of the world’s most prestigious tournament series,” said Poker Central VP of Content Sam Simmons.

PokerGO costs $10 per month.

Paddy Power Betfair Buys FanDuel

Irish online gaming company and sports book Paddy Power Betfair has entered into an agreement to acquire daily fantasy sports site FanDuel. According to Paddy Power’s announcement, it will pay FanDuel $158 million cash, about half of which will go to paying down FanDuel’s debt. The rest will be used to “fund working capital.”

Paddy Power Betfair will own 61 percent of the new company, with FanDuel owning the other 39 percent. After three years, Paddy Power’s portion will increase to 80 percent and then in five years, Paddy Power will control the entire company.

Paddy Power Betfair already has a presence in the New Jersey online gambling market and operates the TVG horse racing betting network in the U.S., so it doesn’t particularly need the FanDuel brand from a gaming standpoint. What this deal may do for Paddy Power Betfair is give it access to the millions of customers of FanDuel in preparation for the upcoming sports betting expansion in the U.S.