Unibet reschedule all 2020 live poker dates
All planned live events will now take place online to provide an alternative to live poker for players concerned about travelling in 2020.
In a month where the World Series of Poker announced the festival will be postponed to Autumn, Unibet have just announced they will not be running any more live events in 2020.
Although they had not released specific details of any future events beyond Tallinn in May, more events were expected. Those dates earmarked for live events will instead take place online this year.
This will include two major online events in September and December which would have previously been reserved for Unibet Open festivals.
The rescheduled dates will mirror the decision to host Unibet Open Tallinn online next month, which was one of the first instances of a live event being rescheduled online that most operators are now embracing.
Unibet Head of Poker Kris Bergvall commented:
The spread of COVID-19 has put the world in an exceptional and uncertain situation which lead to the decision to move the Unibet Open 2020 season online. We made the pivot from live to online because we realised, that we would not be able to guarantee the safety of players and staff if we proceeded with the original schedule.
Unibet Head of Events Nataly Sopacuaperu also commented:
This is not a decision we have taken lightly, we fully understand the impact to our partners and land-based venues, however as a priority we must not only consider the health of our customers but also the difficulty for recreational players with regards to planning trips around uncertainty.
"We can plan the rest of 2020 with conviction"
This is an unprecedented move at a time where some live poker rooms are planning how to reopen in the near future. However, it is one thing for individual card rooms with a local customer base to reopen, entirely another for a live tour which relies on travellers from all over the world to attend.
There is also the consideration that even if the planned events were allowed to take place, it might be a long time before the mostly online Unibet customer base would want to travel for live poker.
Unibet Ambassador David Lappin commented that the decision meant they could plan the rest of the year with confidence:
There is no question that this decision was made with a heavy heart but being able to plan the rest of 2020 with conviction guarantees the best experience for our customers.
The first rescheduled live event, Unibet Open Tallinn, now takes place between May 24-25. It has a €1,100 entry and a €100,000 guarantee.
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