On the same day as the announcement of its third quarter financials, Caesars Entertainment confirmed it has finalized the proposed $500 million sale of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) brand to GGPoker parent company NSUS.
The deal closure officially sends the intellectual property rights of the WSOP brand over to NSUS but the relationship with Caesars will continue well into the future both on the land-based and online poker fronts.
A Caesars Las Vegas property will continue to host the summer WSOP series for the next 20 years. The Horseshoe and Paris casinos have hosted the live event since it moved over from the Rio in 2022.
In addition to hosting the live flagship series and having preferential rights to live WSOP Circuit events, Caesars Digital will also license brand rights from NSUS and continue to run the WSOP Online poker sites it operates in New Jersey, Nevada, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Some of the core WSOP staff will transition over to a new NSUS subsidiary, including Executive Director Ty Stewart, who will now take on the role of CEO. Stewart joined Caesars and the WSOP in 2005. Gregory Chochon, who has been with the WSOP since 2014, will serve as COO, while Erik Eidissen will take on the role of communications manager.
What is unclear about the deal is how GGPoker plans to leverage the WSOP brand online in the rest of the world going forward. The brand, which has run extensive WSOP satellites for the past few years, has also hosted an online bracelet series for the WSOP before.
In Ontario, GGPoker powered the WSOP-branded site in the regulated market as WSOP.ca powered by GGPoker, but rebranded to GGPoker last year.
The power of the GGPoker brand is strong on its own though, overtaking PokerStars as the largest online poker room in the world in 2022.
