The booming world of daily fantasy sports will intersect with live poker action at a special event sponsored by DFS market-leader DraftKings and the World Series of Poker in the current 46th edition of the prestigious Las Vegas tournament, which kicked off this week.
WSOP spokesman Seth Palansky said that in keeping with the tournament’s business philosophy of always been in tune with new and innovative developments, the daily fantasy sports phenomenon has been incorporated into this year’s event 55 – the $1,500 buy-in DraftKings 50/50 no-limit Texas hold ’em competition, scheduled for June 27.
Fifty percent of entrants will cash in the event instead of the more conventional 10 percent of the field, and the format will echo that used in DFS competitions. Three days have been set aside for the event, in which players will start with chip stacks of 7,500, competing in levels lasting for sixty minutes.
The very flat pay-out structure will mean smaller prizes and more cashes than WSOP players are used to, but a potentially bigger and more exciting field that taps into a current betting trend.
In related news, entrance levels in the first two (still running) events in this year’s WSOP have not been as well patronised as last year.
Event 1 – the $565 buy-in Casino Employees NLHE competition entrance list at 688 was 27 percent lower than last year, whilst Event 2, a $5,000 buy-in NLHE contest attracted 422 players – down 39 percent on 2014.