Every summer, tens of thousands of players from around the world converge on the Las Vegas Strip chasing poker's most famous prize: a World Series of Poker gold bracelet. In 2025 the series drew a record 246,960 entrants and paid out more than 481 million dollars, and the 2026 edition is underway now, with the Main Event having begun July 2 and its final table set for a prime time television finale in early August. But behind the felt, the WSOP has quietly changed hands, and the company that owns poker's crown jewel today is not the casino giant most fans assume.
- Caesars sold the WSOP to Toronto-based NSUS Group, GGPoker's parent, for $500 million in 2024.
- Caesars still hosts the Las Vegas series and runs WSOP Online under a 20-year deal.
- The WSOP's clearest political stance is a broadcast policy banning controversial or political apparel.
- No public evidence shows US political donations or a corporate PAC under WSOP or NSUS.
- The 2025 WSOP withheld a bracelet for the first time ever over a collusion scandal.
From Binion's Horseshoe to a Global Brand
The World Series of Poker began in 1970 at Binion's Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas and has been held every year since, including a 2020 edition that shifted to online bracelet events during the pandemic and settled its Main Event through a hybrid online and live format, making it the longest running tournament series in poker [1]. Harrah's Entertainment, the predecessor of Caesars Entertainment, bought the brand in 2004 at the height of the televised poker boom and moved the series to its Strip properties. Since 2022 the summer series has been staged at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas, and the brand has awarded more than 4 billion dollars in prize money over its history [2]. The portfolio now extends well beyond the Vegas summer, with dozens of WSOP Circuit stops each year across multiple continents, WSOP Europe, WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas, and a large online bracelet schedule [2].
Who Owns the World Series of Poker Now
On October 29, 2024, Caesars Entertainment closed the sale of the WSOP brand and its intellectual property to NSUS Group Inc. for 500 million dollars, structured as 250 million in cash plus a 250 million promissory note due five years after closing [1]. NSUS is a privately held iGaming group, headquartered in Toronto, best known as the operator of GGPoker, widely described as the world's largest online poker room [1][3]. NSUS chief executive Michael Kim said the company intends to expand the WSOP worldwide, and longtime WSOP executives moved over in the deal, with Ty Stewart serving as chief executive of the newly formed WSOP subsidiary [1].
Caesars did not exit the picture entirely. Under the sale agreement, Caesars retains the right to host the flagship summer series at its Las Vegas casinos for the next 20 years and holds a license to keep operating the WSOP Online real money poker business in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania [1]. That means the WSOP brand is owned by a private foreign company while a publicly traded American casino operator, Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR), remains its landlord and licensee. Anyone researching who owns the brand should not confuse the two: Caesars sold the WSOP outright, so owning Caesars stock no longer means owning any part of the series [1].
The Political Footprint of Poker's Biggest Brand
The WSOP's political footprint is nearly invisible in public records. Because NSUS Group is a privately held company headquartered outside the United States, it files no shareholder proxy and no US SEC reports for the WSOP entity, and this research found no public evidence of a corporate PAC operating under the WSOP or NSUS name [3]. Federal law separately bars foreign nationals from contributing to US campaigns, which further narrows the channels through which the current owner could engage in American electoral politics.
The clearest documented corporate stance on politics came at the tables. At the WSOP Paradise event in the Bahamas in December 2024, tournament staff told high profile pro Justin Bonomo he could not wear a keffiyeh at the televised final table. The WSOP stated that its broadcast distribution platforms do not allow garments deemed controversial or political in nature, and Bonomo removed the garment before the broadcast [4]. Whatever one thinks of the specific incident, the stated policy is one of keeping political expression off WSOP broadcasts rather than aligning the brand with any cause.
Regulation and Integrity in the Spotlight
Readers should be aware of the brand's regulatory and integrity record, offered here as context on how the company operates rather than as a statement about its politics. In 2022, the UK Gambling Commission fined NSUS Limited, the GGPoker operating entity in Britain, 672,829 pounds for social responsibility and anti money laundering failures, including marketing emails sent to 125 self excluded customers [5]. On the live tournament side, the 2025 WSOP produced the most talked about integrity story in its recent history, and it turned on an outside company's marketing. In the $1,500 Millionaire Maker, a field of nearly 12,000 players came down to a heads up match between Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll, with Carroll holding a lead of about nine to one. Yaginuma, unlike Carroll, held a Gold Rush ticket from ClubWPT Gold, a World Poker Tour affiliated sweepstakes site with no connection to the WSOP, that would pay him an extra one million dollars if he won the event. Yaginuma completed an improbable comeback across a run of hands that many professional players watching the livestream called obvious chip dumping. The WSOP investigated and, for the first time in its history, concluded a live bracelet event without awarding a bracelet, splitting the prize money evenly between the two players to uphold the integrity of the game and its rules [6]. ClubWPT Gold paid Yaginuma the million dollar bonus anyway. NSUS entities hold licenses from regulators including the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, and the UK Gambling Commission.
What Players and Fans Should Watch
The 2026 series, the 57th edition, runs its live bracelet schedule from May 26 through July 15 at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas with 100 bracelet events, and the 10,000 dollar Main Event began July 2 [2]. In a significant media shift, Main Event coverage returned to ESPN in 2026 under a new multi year rights deal, with the final table delayed to August 3 through 5 to build a televised audience [7]. Under NSUS ownership the brand has pushed further into streaming and online play, including an investment in High Stakes Poker Productions, the company behind the Hustler Casino Live stream [3]. For consumers, the practical takeaway is simple: the WSOP name on a casino poster, an online poker client, or an ESPN broadcast now traces back to a private Toronto based gaming group, with Caesars operating the Las Vegas stage under contract.
Footnotes
[1] Caesars Entertainment, "Caesars Entertainment Closes Sale of World Series of Poker Brand to NSUS Group for US$500 million," press release, October 29, 2024. https://investor.caesars.com/news-releases/news-release-details/caesars-entertainment-closes-sale-world-series-pokerr-brand-nsus
[2] World Series of Poker, "The World Series of Poker Reveals Full Summer 2026 Series Schedule," press release, February 16, 2026. https://www.wsop.com/news/the-world-series-of-poker-reveals-full-summer-2026-series-schedule/
[3] GGPoker / NSUS Group, "NSUS Group and High Stakes Poker Productions announce Strategic Partnership," March 2025. https://ggpoker.com/blog/nsus-group-and-high-stakes-poker-announce-strategic-partnership/
[4] Card Player, "Contracts And Poker: Political Speech At The Table," January 2025. https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/29661-contracts-and-poker-political-speech-at-the-table
[5] UK Gambling Commission, "Online casino NSUS Limited fined 672,000 pounds," October 12, 2022. https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news/article/online-casino-nsus-limited-fined-gbp672-000
[6] ESPN, "WSOP: No winner, but split prize money awarded in collusion drama," July 2025. https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/45632069/wsop-no-winner-split-prize-money-awarded-collusion-drama
[7] PokerNews, "2026 WSOP Main Event," 2026 tour coverage confirming ESPN final table dates of August 3 to 5. https://www.pokernews.com/tours/wsop/2026-wsop/2026-wsop-main-event.htm