PartyPoker’s Biggest Moments of 2018

Five reasons why PartyPoker will retain the title of best online poker site in 2019.

PartyPoker made a lot of big moves in 2018. Some were extremely successful, impressing the operator’s worthy dominance of the industry upon players throughout Canada, Europe, and beyond. Others were, well… not so well received. But together, all of these moves helped to solidify PartyPoker’s #1 position among serious players going into 2019.

We’ll take a close look at five of the biggest moments in the brand’s last 12 months, and how they will help PartyPoker to sustain its superiority in the coming year.

Clinching Best Online Poker Site in 2019

It was a huge year for the PartyPoker brand, securing bold print in the headlines from start to finish. It all began with the signing of new, elite sponsorships in January 2018…

#1 PartyPoker signs trio of poker pros

The key to signing ambassadors in the online poker realm is to grab players with universal renown, as well as those who appeal to niche audiences. PartyPoker did just that. In January 2018, the poker room welcomed Finnish pro Joni Jouhkimainen and American phenom Isaac “Ike” Haxton. As many of you know, Haxton just added $3,672,000 to the bank—his largest live cash to date. He did this by taking down last week’s Super High Roller Bowl V, bringing his career earnings to over $23 million. Then in August, the operator signed Scottish pro and PLO specialist Ludovic Geilich, who’s been busy ramping up the PLO offerings on PartyPoker ever since.

#2 PartyPoker partners with WPT

In one of the biggest live/online poker marriages of the century, PartyPoker joined forces with the World Poker Tour (WPT) in August. These two promised to expand the live and online poker industries by leaps and bounds. PartyPoker is now the promoted brand of the WPT, and online qualifiers to WPT events are more abundant than ever.

#3 PartyPoker Live MILLIONS flops in UK

PartyPoker’s Live MILLIONS festival was a bust; by no means one of the brand’s shiniest moments of the year. It took place at the Dusk Till Dawn poker room in London, UK from late September through early October. At £5,300 a pop, the number of buy-ins fell 16 entries/re-entries short of meeting the £5 million guarantee, and drew about 300 players less than the previous year. Organizers chalked it up to a poor structure, which they’ve already begun revising in an effort to increase participation in 2019. Thus, what was a huge disappointment becomes a valuable lesson, wherein PartyPoker can grow ever larger in the future.

#4 PartyPoker wins another EGR Operator of the Year Award

Despite the above blemish having marred PartyPoker’s reputation just a few weeks prior, the officiating judges of the annual EGR Operators Awards—hailed as the Golden Globes of the iGaming industry—did not hesitate to name the brand Poker Operator of the Year for the second year in a row. PartyPoker’s parent company, GVC Holdings, cleaned up nicely too. GVC claimed the titles of ‘Operator of the Year‘ and ‘Casino Operator of the Year‘.

#5 PartyPoker goes out with a BANG! with MILLIONS Online

The brightest moment of all in PartyPoker’s illustrious 2018 began on November 23, and wrapped up in the first week of December. I’m talking, of course, about the PartyPoker MILLIONS Online, an online poker tournament that broke the guarantee record with $20 million GTD. Everything about this tournament was colossal. From $5,300 buy-in, to the 4,367 entries that took a staggering 5 Day 1 flights to accommodate; to the $21,835,000 prize pool that crushed the monstrous guarantee by nearly $2 million.