More than €50 million in PokerStars Southern Europe since launch

(PRESS RELEASE) -- More than 38,000 PokerStars players across Spain, France and Portugal took part in the latest addition to the Southern Europe poker tournament calendar, the Southern Europe Championship of Online Poker (SECOOP), which ran from 28 October to 12 November 2018.

The 149-event debut SECOOP beat its advertised €10 million prize pool guarantee by more than €2.3 million for a total prize pool of €12,306,044, bringing the combined totals of all Southern Europe series (FRESH, SCOOP France and Spain, TRIO Series, Galactic Series and SECOOP) since the launch of shared liquidity on PokerStars to more than €50 million.

‘Befuddeld’ took home €172,451 after topping a field of 5,215 entries in the €250 Main Event, which beat its €1 million prize pool guarantee by €212,487. French players accounted for the most number of entries by nationality, followed by Spain and then Portugal.

SECOOP saw the biggest €50 Warm Up and €10 Classico events that PokerStars Southern Europe has seen to date, with total prize pools hitting €237,375 and €149,382, respectively. French player ‘dav561’ took down the Warm Up event for €32,126 and ‘tecnicu’ from Spain won €146,124 for victory in the Classico.

Other notable wins were earned by ‘bzh3135’ from France, who won back-to-back Midnight Express tournaments (events No. 20 and 29) for a total return of €11,591 from a €40 investment.

“Our COOP series is one of our most loved and renowned events, and we’re proud that players in Southern Europe had the chance to get involved,” said Severin Rasset, Director of Poker Innovation and Operations at The Stars Group. “We’ve hosted a variety of new series and it is amazing to see the support from our players. I want to thank everyone that has played in a shared liquidity offering for helping to create such a success.”

Meanwhile in Italy, the 10th edition of the Italian Championship of Online Poker (ICOOP) offered the biggest ever guarantee in an Italian series at PokerStars, breaking its €4 million guarantee to reach €4,942,126 across 68 events. The Main Event was won by ‘SmartTrave,’ who took home €56,000.