SCOOP 2012 Sets Record for Largest Ever Internet Series

The fourth staging of the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) has, unsurprisingly, broken all online records for an internet series.

While more stats will become available over the next few days, the numbers already make for impressive reading. With all 120 tournaments either finished or started, SCOOP 2012 has recorded 526,154 entries – easily surpassing the 2010 record of 461,936 by close to 14%.

Now, remember that USA-based players can’t take part in SCOOP after the Department of Justice (DoJ) shut down numerous poker rooms – including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker – way back on April 15 last year.

So, these numbers really are impressive, particularly considering that last year’s SCOOP attracted 403,378 buy-ins from 156 nations and 107,697 individual players for a collective prize pool of $43,165,800.

Buy-In Numbers Up By More Than 30%

Of course, many Americans – including the undoubted star of 2012, Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb – have upped sticks and moved to another country, so boosting the numbers for this year. However, even the most optimistic of organisers could not have predicted a 30.4% increase in buy-ins this year. Truly, that is an astounding figure.

Additionally, this staging of SCOOP will also award players with a total of $65,332,179 in bounty and prize pool money – again beating out the $63,000,000 from 2010, as well as the previous record of $64,230,010.

While the three main events are still running, the numbers from each also provide interesting reading for all you stats fans out there – particularly in relation to the guaranteed prize pools.

Double, Double and Double Up Again!

The $109 buy-in (low) tournament has attracted 22,128 entries to create a $2,212,800 prize pool, which is way above the $1 million guarantee. The $1,050 buy-in (medium) version pulled in an impressive 3,567 starters to produce a $3,567,000 prize pool – again much more than double the guaranteed $1.5 million – while the $10,300 buy-in (high) event attracted 517 players to establish a $5,170,000 prize pool. You won’t be surprised to read that this is also more than twice the $2.5 million promised by PokerStars.

Really, it’s been the same story across the board for SCOOP 2012. In fact, event #1 – way back on May 6 – set the standard when the No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament pulled in an incredible 31,727 starters in the $27 (low), $215 (medium) and $2,100 (high) buy-in levels to blow the total guaranteed prize pool of $1.5 million out of the water when totalling $3,290,600. That’s more than 119% above the guarantee from the poker room, people. Just digest that slowly…

Prize Pools Produce Data Overload

The 25,520 starters in the low stakes event created a prize pool of $638,000 – that’s 155.2% more than the $250,000 guarantee! Then, the medium tournament saw 5,423 players sit down to produce a $1,084,600 prize pool to blast past the $500,000 guarantee by 117%. Finally, the high stakes version attracted 784 entrants to ensure that the $750,000 prize pool was again easily surpassed as $1,568,000 was paid out for a 109% boost.

We at Poker News Report will provide you with the full facts and figures over the next few days, but you can expect more of the same as the final two events continue today.

Then it’s on to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) at the end of the month. But will the world’ biggest live tournament series be able to match the incredible figures of SCOOP 2012? It’s unlikely. But we shall see, we shall see…