The GG Spotlight – GGPoker World Festival is Guaranteeing How Much?
The year is 2018. The GGPoker Network is starting to get noticed with its innovative promotions and incredible interface. Our online traffic in the levels of 2nd tier stalwarts, like party and 888, GGPoker needed to do something to ensure it stayed on the map. Thus the creation of the Good Game Series, the GGS.
The GGS represented a massive step forward for GGPoker. Suddenly we were not just another poker site offering the same thing, but we had a real, big money tournament series. In retrospect, the guarantees were peanuts compared to what is coming, but for us, at the time, it was gargantuan.
For the GGS, we were offering $3.5 Million in guarantees over 129 events plus $220K in guaranteed satellite tournaments and over $100K in free tickets giveaways. The series ran between November 18th and December 2nd across the GGNetwork and was a massive success. It showed the other brands that we were not just a flash in the pan, we were the real thing and we were here to stay.
And to ensure there was not any confusion about who we are or what we do, we did it again, this time in the spring – 6 months later – to compete with other online poker spring tournament series. GGPoker had grown significantly in online poker traffic as a result of the series, and as we grew, so did the tournaments.
The Good Game Series 2 became one of our first 8-figure tournament series, offering $10 Million in guarantees. The number of tournaments also increased due to the popularity, up to 157. The series ran between May 12th and May 26th with daily guarantees ranging from $30,000 up to $200,000 with additional High Roller and Super High Roller events with guarantees up to $750,000! The series was also offering tournaments with buy-ins between $10 and $50 that had decent guarantees. The GGS-2 culminated with a $500,000 Championship event with five Day 1’s and a low $200 buy-in.
When the GGS-2 came to its completion, GGPoker was firmly in 3rd position in terms of online poker traffic and we were on a roll. Not one to shy away from success, on September 8th, 2019 we launched the GGSeries 3. This edition came with 482 tournaments, buy-ins between $5 and $25,000, spread over 3 weeks of incredible poker play, an incredible $50 Million in guarantees, and 3 full buy-in tiers – Low between $5-$99, Medium $100-$999 and High $1001+. Quite the impressive feat for the small upstart.
2020 started and the world shut down because of Covid. To say we were living in interesting times would be an understatement – who can forget the great toilet paper shortage? April arrived and it was time again for the next edition of the GGSeries. With the result from the previous 3, it was decided to run the series as a $50 Million Guarantee, but this time officially split over 4 tiers: Low, Medium, High, and Super High. We also added a $300,000 Leaderboard for this event where the top player earned a bonus of $37,500. The series laid the foundation for the rest of the year and we continued to grow in the market leading to 2021.
The 2021 edition had grown so big, it was time for a name change and thus the GG Spring Festival was born. The GGSF, having built on our knowledge from the previous series, had 110 tournaments at each of the 3 tiers and offered an incredible $150 Million, more than we had ever offered before.
Being able to host tournaments of this size with guarantees as big as we were offering, and being able to say we were one of the biggest online poker sites in the world, these were the goals from the beginning, but to be so close to the finale, to be able to reach the stars and maybe knock them off their perch… we were almost there.
By the time 2022 came around, we were closing in on the top of the poker traffic rankings so for the Spring Festival, it was time to change again and we came out swinging. Offering a double ‘portion’ of ice cream compared to just the single ‘portion’ offered by other sites, in our massive 4-tiered, $150 Million GG Online Championship. The GGOC was the talk of the town with a $10 Million and an $8 Million guaranteed Main Events, this was going to be the biggest tournament series of the year. Half-a-Million spread over the leaderboards, unique badges to be won, and multiple events every week with a $1,000,000 guarantee, the GGOC demolished the competition and by the end, there was no question that GGPoker was the real poker champion.
Since the 2022 edition, and over the years, we have gone through a lot of changes. We have grown and hopefully gotten better. Sure, we have made mistakes but we have certainly learned from them. We have there have been a lot of changes. We have grown, we adapted, we got better. We also wanted a proper brand for our springtime, multi-tiered event. A brand that properly conveyed that this was not only THE online poker tournament series, and not only was it a universal festival, but it was the biggest, online poker tournament series. It was the place to be to complete and make a name for yourself online. Thus the metamorphosis into the GGPoker World Festival: One Universal Experience – Across Four Tiers.
The year 2023 brings to you the biggest and most inclusive online poker tournament series ever. Exclusive to GGPoker, you will have an opportunity to play for a share of $200 Million in guarantees across the 4 tiers. Each tier will have its own leaderboard with $100K worth of prizes to be won. Life-altering amounts of money will be won this year with over 40 events having a guarantee of at least $1,000,000.
The 4-tiers have distinct buy-ins and easy to understand naming conventions making it simple to join the event you want or qualify through the robust satellite schedule. Each Sunday will have its own Main Event with the first one, on Sunday, May 8th, being a $5 Global MILLION$ Mystery Bounty Grand Opening. This tournament, which has a $1,000,000 guarantee and a top bounty of $100,000, is the very first $5 buy-in Million Dollar Guarantee tournament. With that much money, how could you not play (and there may be a way to get into the tournament for free, but you’ll have to look around for that).
Join now and become a part of living history starting May 1st, 2023 at GGPoker and the GG World Festival.
From the Desk of the Wordsmith