In 2011, the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe festivities will emanate from Cannes, France after a four-year run in London. A seven-stop tournament series will also be held around the European nation and qualifiers can be found on BarrierePoker.fr. To break down the move, Poker News Daily sat down with WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart.
Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. Tell us what the reaction has been so far to the WSOP Europe moving to France.
Ty Stewart: The Players’ Advisory Council and a lot of the more serious players get it. They’ve seen the growth of the big tournaments in France. It became a regulated market and there’s a lot of interest. Everybody who has been to WSOP Europe is very excited about the change. Some of the players on the forums really have said some negative things about the takeout for taxation, but it’s 4% for No Limit Hold’em and 2% for Omaha. Pretty much, that’s the only negative thing I’ve heard.
PND: Can you talk about the importance of French market as well as its complications?
Ty Stewart: The only real negative is that the only games you can spread are Hold’em and Omaha derivatives. You can’t play many Mixed Games and the fact that there is auto-taxation for the government out of the prize pool is a con too. The pros by far outweigh the cons as far as we’re concerned in terms of the hotness of the market, the facilities, and the glamour.
Cannes has this allure, particularly among North Americans. For us, it really wasn’t about city to city or venue to venue; it was about the partnerships of marketing the event, having better customer service, and being able to promote the tournament. The strength of our partners was what pushed us to the decision to move.
PND: There are two new bracelet events on tap at the 2011 WSOP Europe. Can you give us any details about them?
Ty Stewart: We’re still getting approval on the schedule. We want to be able to offer a split format, but we have to make sure that it’s legal and that there’s as much excitement in the player base as there has been in our PAC. We’ve also never had a shootout at WSOP Europe, so a mid-priced shootout would be something that would be smart.
The great thing about having 80 tables is that we can have a dedicated restart area and are planning to start a new event every day. The goal is to use the new facilities to address these issues.
PND: Is there any concern that you’re relying too heavily on the French market?
Ty Stewart: We have a partner that has committed to having a certain number of qualifiers through the live tournament series as well as online. That number is in the triple-figures for the Main Event, so right off the bat, we’re talking about increasing our field size. It hasn’t been reliant on the host market in the past. This won’t be a tournament for the French. Now, we have the ability to inform these players that there’s a bunch of new money. The prize pools will swell and we have what they want to see – new players and new money going up against those who have traditionally played.
We still plan to run qualifiers in the U.K., so it’s kicking up our incremental resources. In the past, there have been very few qualifiers from brick-and-mortar casinos and online. This year, we know we’ll have a whole marketing system behind us that will increase the field. The players also understand how much better it’ll be.
PND: Are there any changes to 2011 WSOP in Las Vegas that you can talk about?
Ty Stewart: The number one complaint last year was that it was too spacious and people felt a little sleepy in there. There weren’t as many long lines, there was more space in between tables, and the food area has continued to grow. All of those things that we feel like we did better are all coming back. A lot of players have asked for late registration for tournaments and they’ll be able to do so for four levels. We also shortened the dinner break by a half hour.
