Editor
The WSOP+ app has completely changed the 2025 WSOP. The entire structure of the tournament registration process has changed for players. Likewise, the app has also significantly changed the way tournament coverage works for those of us in poker media.
The WSOP officially announced the introduction of the app in early May after it had been a success at WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas.
Most of the changes have been player-focused, but I’d like to highlight how significantly they have improved the process for covering various WSOP tournaments.
In previous years, live tournament coverage counted on beginning of the day registration lists which would change very quickly and became unreliable as the day went on. This made it difficult to identify players in large fields and often resorted to having to bother players to ask their name.
The WSOP+ app already has every player at each table as they move around. The dealer checks them in on an iPad at the table and they can then be identified on the app. This makes coverage a breeze, as the reporter can simply look up who is sitting at each seat and always have the players correctly identified.
Another thing the WSOP+ app does is update chip counts on break, with the help of each dealer. This system has already been in place in many other tournament series around the world. The EPT has used such a system for years, which makes for growing stops such as the succesful 2024 EPT Prague series.
It improves the quality of the coverage as well. Reporters and media can focus on things like creating the best story, such as Benny Glaser going back to back, and capturing the best hands, rather than having to worry about who is who in cases of mistaken identity.
More Creativity With Coverage
Poker reporters such as myself have grown accustomed to a routine when covering a tournament live. Things like updating chip counts, identifying players. monitoring who enters etc. But with the WSOP+ app basically taking care of all of these things, it leaves room for reporters to be more creative.
Exactly what that creativity looks like is still to be determined over the coming weeks of the 2025 WSOP. But there are many avenues and ideas brewing to make this year’s WSOP the most extensively covered in history.
