On Wednesday, the World Poker Tour announced the creation of WPT Online India Powered by Adda52.com. The tournament series will run November 5-22 and will feature 154 events and INR 135 million ($1.838 million) in guaranteed prize pools.
The Main Event will begin on November 11 and will give players ample opportunity to participate with a whopping ten starting flights. The buy-in for the Main Event is INR 11,000 ($150); the tournament comes with an INR 25 million ($338,527) guarantee. The winner of the Main Event will also receive a $5,000 WPT Passport, which can be used to enter any live WPT event anywhere in the world (once the events go live again, of course). In addition, the victor will get a Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Titanium timepiece, valued at more than two WPT Passports: $10,400.
As we often see in online tournament series, WPT Online India has a leaderboard, called the Mega Player of the Series Leaderboard. Total prizes amount to INR 2.5 million ($33,853); the overall winner will receive INR 1 million ($13,541). Of the 154 events, 29 will count toward the leaderboard.
“The WPT Online venture continues to grow as part of our overall online strategy which we have found effective across the global market,” said Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour. “This series comes on the heels of our successful WPT Online series in other parts of the world and we are pleased to be working with Adda52 come November.”
On the final day of WPT Online India, there will be a special INR 11,000 buy-in Mike Sexton Tribute event to honor the poker legend and long-time WPT commentator who passed away after a battle with prostate cancer earlier this month. All entry fees will be donated to the charity Poker Gives.
“The WPT has built a great relationship with the Indian poker community and we’re proud to have them as our partners,” said Pratap Pandit, VP of Online Operations for Delta Corp, in Wednesday’s announcement. “The reach and accessibility of this year’s online series is really exciting and the festive season of Diwali is the perfect setting for it.”
Adda52.com is an India-based online poker site, a fully-owned subsidiary of Delta Corp Limited. Delta Corp is an Indian gaming and hospitality company, operating both casinos and hotels. It is actually India’s only publicly traded casino company.
Manish J. Adnani, Business Head – Poker for Delta Corp called his past work with the World Poker Tour in the live WPT India series a “learning experience.”
“We expect to continue setting higher standards for online poker in the Indian Sub-continent, rollout a memorable experience on Adda52.com and offer the Indian players a platform to achieve glory at the world stage,” he added.