Evolution of the PokerStars.com EPT: Part IJohn Duthie's Dream Turns into Reality |
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The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final has grown to become one of the most prestigous poker tournaments of the year, and the premiere event held outside of the United States. To shed light on this record growth, Card Player has provided some history about the EPT and prior Grand Final Championships.
Just like Archimedes 2,000 years ago, John Duthie, founder of the European Poker Tour had his moment of clarity in the bath. From that point it took the acclaimed TV drama director just six months to get the project — Europe’s first trans-national poker tour — off the ground.
In 2005 he outlined the genesis of the tour to Card Player Europe magazine. “The World Poker Tour had been hugely successful, and it became clear that its organizers wanted to expand into Europe. They already had made one or two attempts, but when they proved unsuccessful, I decided to jump in. I had an edge over them from the start: I knew the European market better than they did, I had a few contacts in important places, and I was also a TV executive. So, once I had convinced myself that this was something that I really wanted to start up, my job was to convince casinos that it would also be in their best interests to let us film the events they hosted. This was going to be an uphill struggle, as up till that point, filming inside a casino had been strictly forbidden.
“I had a great relationship with the Vic in London, and I got them on board quickly. Then, once I’d signed PokerStars as the sponsor, and Eurosport agreed to broadcast the shows, other European venues started to realize that something special was happening, and they followed suit. This occurred despite the fact that the countries all had laws, or gaming boards, which would oppose the plans. The presence of a commercial sponsor was another reason for some casinos to be somewhat fearful to jump on the wagon.
“Eventually, we managed to get started in September 2004, with the Vic in London, the Merrion Club in Dublin, the Concord in Vienna, and the Gran Casino Barcelona all on board. I also wanted to include the Dutch Master Classics, as well, but to this day I haven’t been able to get the organisers to sign up. We also had the Aviation Club in Paris on the provisional list. All in all, we did not have many venues at that point, but I knew that once we started, many more would want to join, and that’s what happened.”
And great oaks from little acorns grow. The EPT has expanded from its humble €1,000 buy-in event in Barcelona with 229 players to the €10,000 buy-in event in Monte Carlo which in season three attracted 706 runners and created Europe’s largest ever prize pool of €6,636,400. [insert line about season four stats here]
This incredible growth didn’t happen overnight, nor was it without pain for organisers and players alike. In the next installment of our story of the EPT we look at how it has evolved from season to season and some of the landmark events and winners it has given us.
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