How WPT® Global Supports Irish Poker

Support at partner-festival level

The clearest 2026 festival example is the Dublin Poker Festival.

The festival’s official site says WPT® Global was the partner for 2026, that the series ran from February 19 to March 1, and that it carried over €400,000 in guaranteed prize pools with countless opportunities to qualify online.

WPT® Global’s own guide to the series positioned it as an accessible, mid-stakes Dublin festival aimed at recreational players and traveling regulars rather than a prestige-only stop.

PokerNews’ result coverage says the €350 ACOP Main Event drew 706 entries and created a €212,294 prize pool, while the €700 European Deepstack Championship drew 475 entries and a €285,665 prize pool. Those are meaningful live numbers for a partner festival in Dublin, which makes the support look practical rather than cosmetic.

Support through lower-cost access

WPT® Global’s Irish strategy looks strongest when it lowers the barrier to entry.

Using Dublin Poker Festival as the clearest example, WPT® Global’s low-stakes satellite guide said the ACOP route ran through $4.40 feeders into $44 finals with 3 seats guaranteed, while the European Deepstack route used a $0.88 → $8.80 → $88 ladder into the live event.

PokerNews’ February coverage highlighted that same deepstack path as starting from $0.88.

That is important because a €700 live buy-in and a path that starts at $0.88 are not the same product. One is a direct mid-stakes live buy-in. 

The other is a mass-access feeder system. In practical terms, this is one of the easiest parts of WPT® Global’s support model to defend. It gives lower-stakes players a route into Irish live events that would otherwise be harder to justify.

The OnLive Day 1 model strengthens that further.

PokerNews reported that players could start the €700 European Deepstack from home on WPT® Global, bag a stack online, then carry it into the live event in Dublin. That is a hybrid access model that reduces travel friction for some players and makes a live event feel more reachable before a player ever books the trip.

The €100,000 bonus model

At Dublin Poker Festival, PokerNews reported that online qualifiers for the European Deepstack were eligible for a €100,000 Golden Ticket bonus if they went on to win the live event. PokerNews later reported that online qualifier Krzysztof Grubka reached heads-up before missing the extra €100,000, while Gavin McGrath won the title.

That matters because it shows the offer was attached to a real event, a real qualifier path, and a real near-hit.

The same model showed up in Killarney.

WPT® Global’s Irish Poker Cup page says players could enter a $815 (€700) OnLive Day 1, finish in the top 30 to claim a Golden Ticket, and then collect an extra €100,000 if they went on to win the €500,000 guaranteed Irish Poker Cup Main Event. PokerNews’ August 2025 coverage described the same structure and confirmed that WPT® Global and the Irish Poker Tour were pushing it together.

Summer in Dublin followed a similar promotional logic. According to internal clarification from the team, WPT® Global ran freeroll package qualifiers tied to the event, again with the €100,000 promo attached. That is important because it shows the six-figure bonus model was not limited to one isolated campaign.

This does not prove deep structural investment on its own. But it does show a practical pattern. WPT® Global is attaching real upside to qualifier routes into Irish live events.

A broader Irish ecosystem footprint

This is another reason the footprint looks broader than a one-off campaign.

The cleanest Irish Poker Tour-linked examples are Killarney and Summer in Dublin, where WPT® Global was involved through OnLive Day 1s, qualifier campaigns, and six-figure bonus promotions. That is a more defensible framing than treating every Irish event as part of the same support map.

There is also a separate live-event thread through the International Poker Open.

According to internal confirmation from the team, WPT® Global has an ongoing partnership with Nick O’Hara around the International Poker Open series. For the October 2025 event, WPT® Global reportedly ran more than 60 satellite qualifiers into the live event and generated 50 entries into the OnLive Day 1. Twenty players were eligible for the €100,000 bonus, with Ray Wheatley ending as the last remaining eligible player before falling short of the title.

That matters because it widens the picture. It suggests WPT® Global’s Irish footprint is not just one Dublin festival plus one Killarney campaign. It extends into additional live-event structures where qualifiers and hybrid online-to-live formats are central.

Irish players and Irish-facing visibility

While WPT® Global has supported Irish poker through event access, it has also backed Irish-facing creators.

In March 2026, WPT® Global published a feature on new ambassador Fintan Hand, which made clear that his signing aligned with the company’s growing presence in Ireland. The same profile linked that move back to earlier Ireland-facing activity and highlighted Hand’s reach, noting that he had more than 136,000 Twitch followers.

That matters because it shows the Irish strategy is not only about running satellites. It is also about visibility and credibility through Irish-facing poker voices.

What the evidence actually supports

When it comes down to what the evidence shows behind the WPTG support of Irish poker, we can have a look at a few points. 

First one is that WPT® Global is active in Irish poker beyond isolated advertising.

Second, its strongest support comes through access mechanics such as micro-feeders, seat routes, OnLive Day 1s, Golden Ticket-style bonuses, and partner-festival pathways.

Third, that support is concentrated in Ireland’s mid-stakes and ecosystem layer rather than in one dominant flagship position.

Irish poker was already strong. What WPT® Global aims to do is to help more players access that ecosystem through lower-cost routes, hybrid qualification models, and promotional upside tied to real live events.