For many years, PokerStars held on to its status as the undisputed king of online poker. Fronted by some of the world’s best poker pros, the site enjoyed uncontested dominance in the online poker arena for a very long time. But things started to change over the past couple of years when GGPoker came on the scene.
GGPoker, which launched in 2014, primarily catered to Asian players. In a span of two years, the operator managed to establish major partnerships and affiliate deals, paving the way for an international expansion. In 2017, it entered the UK market through NSUS Limited.
Since then, GGPoker has become a prominent player in the global online poker industry, and has also become PokerStars’ biggest rival to date.
The site has only been operating for around seven years but it was able to leave all of the other major older brands in its wake, and might just replace PokerStars at the top spot.
So what has brought GGPoker to its current status as one of the world’s leading online poker sites, considering that it’s a relatively new player in the market? Let’s take a look at some of the factors contributing to GGPoker’s massive success.
Home of the Largest Online Tournaments
GGPoker has also become the top destination for online poker tournaments over recent months. It made waves in 2020 when it partnered with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) for the first-ever WSOP Online Series which ended up smashing records.
After that, the site continued to host online tournaments with gigantic guarantees, such as the recently-concluded GG Spring Festival which ended up awarding an astonishing $175 million in total prize money.
The Spring Festival was GGPoker’s answer to PokerStars’ flagship tournament series SCOOP. Both festivals ran on the same dates, but when the dust settled, GGPoker’s Spring Festival clearly outperformed the 2021 edition of SCOOP, with the latter only generating close to $140 million in total prize pool.
More massive tournaments are coming to GGPoker this year. It is continuing its partnership with the WSOP and will once again play host to another WSOP Online Series in August. It will surely be another successful series, and will further cement GGPoker’s reputation as one of today’s biggest online poker sites, which might just put an end to PokerStars’ online poker dominance.
Daniel Negreanu As GGPoker Ambassador
In May 2019, Daniel Negreanu shocked the poker world when he announced that he was leaving PokerStars, his home for 12 long years.
Negreanu never really disclosed the main reason for leaving the site, though he described his departure as an “amicable split”. Just six months later, the Canadian poker pro once again made a surprise announcement when he said he’s joining GGPoker.
During that time, GGPoker already had a strong roster of ambassadors comprised of some of the world’s most popular and highly-accomplished poker pros, including Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Bryn Kenney (Kenney eventually parted ways with the site in 2020). But with Negreanu on board, GGPoker achieved more growth, tripling its size in just one year!
Negreanu’s status as one of the greatest poker players of all time played a huge role in GGPoker’s rapid growth. His poker resume is nothing short of outstanding.
The Canadian poker pro is a six-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, holds two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles, and held on to the top of Hendon Mob’s All-Time Money List for quite a long time before Justin Bonomo replaced him in 2018. Now, Negreanu is still third on the list with more than $42 million in live tournament winnings. He was inducted into the prestigious Poker Hall of Fame in 2014.
Apart from that, Negreanu also has a huge following on social media, being one of the most followed poker players on Twitter (490,000 followers). He also has more than 500,000 subscribers on YouTube.
While PokerStars introduced a major change to its ambassadorship by moving away from poker pros and recognized names, GGPoker continued to sign some more high-profile figures into its global team, which now includes Fedor Holz and more recently, Dan Bilzerian.
We will have to wait and see if GGPoker continues to close the gap between it and PokerStars in the coming months.