The Untapped Audience-Building Potential of WSOP.com
The WSOP continues to invest in and evolve their event coverage. The next logical step means leaning into their existing philosophy across all available platforms.
Joe Stapleton hit the nail squarely on the head in a recent interview with poker.org.
“If we want to treat poker like a legitimate sport, adding some of the things that legitimate sports broadcasts do is a really good idea.”
Stapleton was referring to the new World Series of Poker Countdown show and how it could help expand the audience that watches poker. Poker has always found the greatest penetration into mainstream audiences when it’s presented as a sport. It doesn’t seem unreasonable then that line of thinking would apply to other forms of coverage coming from official WSOP channels, most notably WSOP.com.
There are two distinct audiences that WSOP needs to serve: Players and Enthusiasts. A Venn diagram would certainly show some overlap between the two and WSOP organizers would obviously love to increase that overlap over time as enthusiasts find their way to becoming players.
The WSOP Live app, rolled out for Las Vegas events prior to the 2025 WSOP, addressed some key friction points for players, most importantly those involving registration and money. It also moved a lot of the WSOP.com content exclusively to the app. While WSOP Live rightfully received praise from players for making their experience better, it does leave something to be desired for the fans who so faithfully follow the WSOP from home every summer.
#1 - Chip Counts and Updates Need To Be Live
Unlike sports, poker can’t be broadcast or streamed live for game integrity reasons. WSOP streams can be delayed as much as four hours, which presents a challenge for how to provide live updates and chip counts to fans. Along with moving chip counts exclusively to the WSOP Live app, the names and chip counts of players at tables that are being streamed are hidden to users with “Feature Table Player” used as a placeholder. Chip counts are updated in time with the livestream, not the actual tournament.
Poker fans seeking chip counts and the associated live updates aren’t looking for out-of-date information any more than somebody visiting ESPN.com or NBA.com are. The need to protect the stream is certainly understandable, but there is a relatively simple tech-driven way to ensure users get the information they want and are warned of the spoiler potential while also funneling users directly to the livestream.
This type of solution not only blurs out names and chip counts before the user makes a selection, but it also gives users the option to choose their preferred experience: live updates and chip counts in real time or the livestream on delay - or both.
#2 - Bring Back Day 1 Chip Counts for Feature Events
Starting in 2025, live updates for Day 1 were eliminated and chip counts were limited to only the app (other than the Main Event) while PokerNews provided Live Updates from Day 2 onward. This has led to some complaints about the lack of Day 1 coverage available.
The truth is, Day 1 updates and chip counts often don’t generate enough traffic to justify the cost. The analytics show that a decent chunk of Day 1 traffic comes from players in the event looking to see how they’re doing or even just to see their name in the updates.
There is a compromise which makes business sense that requires saying the quiet part out loud: not all bracelet events are equal. There are a number of events each summer that have a good combination of prestige and star power to drive enough traffic to justify the cost of Day1 coverage. The WSOP has already distinguished select events as more important or prestigious. “Championship” events with a buy-in of $10,000 or more (including the Ladies event) and “High Roller” events with a buy-in of $25,000 or more could all be covered by the Live Updates team from Day 1.
In pursuit of servicing the enthusiasts and expanding the audience as much as possible, all of this would be available on WSOP.com and the WSOP Live app.
#3 - Spend Time and Money on Storytelling
The day after the 2026 WSOP began, the top story on WSOP.com was WSOP Circuit New Orleans recap. It’s hard to imagine going to FIFA.com today and seeing a recap of the World Cup friendly between England and New Zealand from ten days earlier. The WSOP website is a high-value property that WSOP could absolutely utilize to tell the stories, via articles, videos, or podcasts, that make the WSOP so special to players and enthusiasts alike.
There are three distinct types of written content that WSOP can publish on WSOP.com to feed the fans at home which also help build the brand. Event previews whet the appetite for what is to come in the following days. Event Recaps put the newest bracelet winner front and center and deepen the context of each event and how it contributes to the narratives developing throughout the summer.
The WSOP is full of great stories that go beyond who won the bracelet. Once people read the recap and find out who won the tournament, it’s important to show them who the winner of the tournament is. Their backstory, their motivation, the funny or emotional thing that happened to them on the way to winning. It’s also important to go into the field every day and find stories that will resonate with fans and players alike and potentially shine a spotlight the WSOP and poker outside of its own ecosystem.
Lastly, a daily quick, easily digestible reset that recaps everything that happened the previous day - bracelet winners, chip leaders, interviews, the drama - helps fans form a habit which gets them checking WSOP.com every morning.
In support of all of the above and desire to take cues from the sports world, the Player of the Year standings and player stats sections should be updated in real time.
#4 - Put On-Air Talent on Homepage Duty
After taking over the livestream duties from PokerGO right before this summer began, the WSOP invested heavily in their on-air talent. Along with bringing in Jeff Platt as Global Broadcast Talent, they also added David Williams, Maria Ho, and Joe Stapleton to go along with mainstays Lon McEachern, Norman Chad, and Ali Nejad. The daily pre-game show, WSOP Countdown, has some combination of Platt, Williams, Stapleton, and Chad on air each day but there may also be a way to utilize each of them for WSOP.com short-form video content or articles that would drive traffic and remind people of WSOP Countdown and the livestreams.
#5 - Keep the WSOP Live Account Requirement
One of the strongest business cases for creating WSOP Live and directing people to download it and create an account was to build what will eventually become the most valuable database of poker players and fans. That requirement does not need to change for any of the above to happen and users could have one universal account for use with the website and the app. Content including chip counts, live updates, or articles could be limited for users without an account while logging in opens up the full array of content. Keep the player-specific tools and options exclusive to the app so that you don’t bog down the website with too many options and keep some of the content exclusive to the website for the exact same reasons.
The hiring of Platt and Stapleton, the creation of WSOP Countdown, the development of WSOP Live, the decision to make livestreams free and get the Main Event back on ESPN are clear indications that GG Poker is willing to spend more money to further support and develop the WSOP brand that they invested $500 million in just two years ago. Future investment in the website and the content that populates it is an important next step.