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The NJCOOP, slated for October 15 – 31, will guarantee $1.2 million across 43 events, surpassing the guarantee of the GSSS V by $50,000. It will culminate in a two-day Main Event that will issue at least $200,000 to NJ online poker players.
With the announcement, PokerStars has issued a clear message to its opponents — that when it comes to prestigious tournament series’ in New Jersey, it will not be outdone.
Compared to the already ambitious NJSCOOP — hosted by PokerStars NJ in May — the NJCOOP is worlds more aggressive.
On it’s own, a guarantee boost of $100,000 (the NJSCOOP guaranteed $1.1 million) may not seem like much. And it wouldn’t be, hadn’t PokerStars slashed the number of events from 54 to 43. Taken together, it looks like PokerStars will have a lot more ground to cover:
As to what those buy-ins will be, most will hover in the $50 – $300 range. They’ll be a few outliers — a $1,000 buy-in High Roller comes to mind — but they’re few and far between.
With the buy-in structure revamp, it appears PokerStars is attempting to target its core customers in New Jersey — namely, poker professionals and enthused recreational players.
Beyond the aforementioned changes, the NJCOOP will largely resemble the NJSCOOP:
It’s worth noting that the Main Event will coincide with the inaugural PokerStars Festival at Resorts AC. Intersecting land-based and online events was a strategy heavily utilized by Party/Borgata in the industry’s early days, but one that it has since abandoned after less than stellar results.
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Players on PokerStars NJ will be highly incentivized to roll the dice in October, as the operator is hosting a variety of NJCOOP satellites and other events revolved around the series:
If that weren’t enough, anyone who participates in one of five pre-selected NJCOOP events will receive a ticket to an All-in Shootout, where the four top finishers will win a PokerStars Festival Main Event ticket, valued at $1,100.
In total, 20 tickets will be awarded, for a promotional value of $22,000.
The qualifying events are:
Players who register for the same event more than once will not be awarded multiple tickets.
After an early summer swoon, NJ online poker revenue was back on the up-and-up for August, with operators generating $2,173,488 in gross gaming revenue.
September has historically been a bit of a letdown month. But recent PokerScout cash game trends, and a strong promotional push by operators suggest that September revenue might just hold steady, at least on a day-by-day basis.
In either case, October is shaping up to be a monumental month for the industry, with two major tournament series’ combining to guarantee $2.35 million. Just the rake from these events alone will pad revenue by a couple hundred thousand. And that’s forgetting the strong possibility of increased cash game and Spin & Go revenue.
That being said, there’s a big difference between gross gaming revenue and profit. If the ambitious series’ end up producing mass overlays — a distinct possibility — then the reported tallies will still look high, but the margins may fall into the red.
In this scenario, it becomes unlikely that we’ll be seeing even more aggressive forays in 2017.