Editor
PokerStars and PokerGO have announced a new partnership for the 2025 WSOP, which will become immediately visible to poker fans.
PokerStars will now be the lead sponsor of PokerGO’s WSOP live streaming coverage. Popular longtime PokerStars announcers Joe Stapleton and James Hartigan will be on the call. It will be broadcast in all territories where PokerStars and PokerGO operate.
The most notable aspect of this coverage will be its free-to-view nature for fans, as a select number of broadcasts before July 8 will be shown for free on PokerStars’ YouTube and Twitch channels. It gets underway quickly, starting tonight, June 16, with the largest buy-in event of the series in the $250K High Roller, one of the multiple high-roller events of the WSOP.
Notable free broadcasts:
- June 16: $250,000 No Limit Hold’em Super High Roller
- June 26-27: $50,000 Poker Players Championship
- July 2-8: $10,000 WSOP Main Event. Day 1, 2 and 3 coverage.
This signals a significant shift in what many poker fans are accustomed to. Traditionally, PokerStars and the WSOP have been very separate entities in the world of poker. Seeing the PokerStars logo on the screen during WSOP play was a jolt to the system for many watching earlier in the series.
Since GGPoker bought the WSOP in August of 2024 their imprint on the series has been noticeable and a big game changer. Which therefore creates an understandably confusing dynamic with their chief competitor PokerStars making moves to acquire WSOP streaming. The deal is with PokerGO rather than the WSOP itself.
Mori Eskandri, President of PokerGO, welcomed the announcement with this statement.
“We’re proud to welcome PokerStars as the lead sponsor of PokerGO’s 2025 WSOP livestreams. This collaboration brings together two of the most respected brands in poker to serve fans across the globe. With PokerGO’s world-class production and PokerStars’ reach and storytelling, we’re setting a new standard for how the WSOP is experienced around the world.”
Every poker media outlet in the world is keen to get in on the WSOP action and this deal proves just how valuable the WSOP space is for poker companies.
