Bovada | Bodog's Summer Million Poker Open tournament series review and recap, with total prize pools, overlays, player traffic, MTT guarantees, and analysis
Bovada Continues US-Facing Dominance With Successful Summer Million Poker Open Tournament Series. Bovada, the US-facing online poker room on the Bodog Network, has successfully completed another tournament series that saw guarantees crushed, overlays extremely rare, overall prize pools swelling more than $500,000 over advertised amounts, and over 42,000 players take part in the three week Summer Million Poker Open (SMPO).
The SMPO was to be a $1 million summer time MTT series that ended up being pushed to almost $1.6 million thanks to 16 tournaments doubling their stated guarantees. Several more came very close to doubling, while a handful saw guarantees tripled or even quadrupled (the $2,000 GTD "Thousandaire Maker" surged to over $8,700 in total prize money).
The Summer Million Poker Open was extra ordinarily successful. It was in fact the most successful online poker tournament series of the entire summer insofar as US poker players are concerned. Only two of the multi-table tournaments had overlays in the three weeks of the SMPO. Those overlays amounted to a whopping total of $697, there is no error there, only six hundred and ninety seven United States Dollars were paid on overlays. Bovada and Bodog clearly know their tournament player base's wants, desires, and needs very intricately.
The Bodog Network netted a tidy $139,000 in estimated profits from the event. This is par for their course, as profits routinely come in around the $100,000 per week mark (at least) on their weekly $5,000 GTD and higher tournament schedule. Bovada is the only US-facing online poker room to earn steady six-figure profits on a monthly basis on their $5,000 guaranteed and up MTT schedule. Most tournament schedules are known as "loss leaders" to an online gaming company, who generate far more revenue on casino and sports betting operations (online poker is usually a small fraction of overall profits). And while this is still true on Bodog, their fraction of profits from online poker is vastly larger than almost all other competitors.
Three Sunda Million Poker Opern events on July 22nd (#48, #49, and #50) did not run as their was a short-term server issue preventing play. In all, 69 events were played, with 42,918 players taking part. The average profit of each MTT was just over $2,000, with only one tournament - the $1,000 GTD $1.65, event #19 - generating a loss (of $84, mind you).
The next tournament promotion coming down the pike is Bovada's Punta Cana prize pack special, with qualifiers and direct-package events running from this Sunday, August 3rd through October 13th. Packages are valued at over $5,500, with items including a buy-in to the Punta Cana Poker Classic in the Dominican Republic this November, six nights stay at the Hard Rock Cafe and Casino, travel money, transport from the airport, all inclusive food and drinks, and a swag bag.
Be sure to stay tuned to ProfRB.com for more on the Punta Cana Poker Classic, as well as the latest promotions from other US-facing online poker rooms.
If you aren't playing on Bovada, then you are truly missing out on the best option for US players, and one of the leading options for ROW players. Consistently rated #1 among US-friendly online poker rooms in terms of player traffic, payouts, cash game options, and more, there's never been a better time to hit the virtual felt! Consider signing up with Professional Rakeback and enjoy superior player advocacy and support.