How much extra EV does a Main Event champion get?

On top of the $10 million first prize, how much extra money can this year's WSOP champion expect to make from unique opportunities and endorsement deals?

There was a great discussion over on X this last week, started by Rob Kuhn, about how much extra EV is generated for winning the Main Event championship. 

A lot of people, including Kuhn himself, suggested that the value in winning the Main Event, beyond the prize money, is in its millions, with Kuhn suggesting maybe $5 million.

I wonder if people studying for the WSOP main event factor in how much winning it is worth off the felt

You become a legend

You expand your reach exponentially

You can become an ambassador for a big poker site

What is your guess on how much actually winning the main is worth…

— Rob Kuhn (@RobKuhn_) July 25, 2026

Funnily enough, it's a discussion I had myself last week in a webinar with Dara O' Kearney, and we both came to the same conclusion. It's probably worth next to nothing in comparison to the Main Event prize. I would set the line at $200,000 and take the under for most players. 

When Stars & Tilt patched every champ

There was a time that winning the World Series of Poker Main Event meant that you would be set for life, even if you had sold 80% of yourself in the tournament. 

This is because, for the first few players after the Poker Boom and then many more during the November 9 final table break, the guaranteed exposure attracted big money from sponsors. PokerStars and Full Tilt would put patches on everybody and make the winners long-term ambassadors and sometimes also give them a bonus for winning the Main Event. 

But that was a very long time ago. The last time I saw Pokestars sponsor a Main Event champion, it was Jonathan Duhamel in 2010. These are the champions since then:

Who gets big deals now?

Before we even talk about the benefits these players have received, be honest: you had forgotten a lot of those names, right? A lot of these champions have either faded into obscurity or left the game entirely, but either way, winning the Main Event does not make you a star for life. 

I've seen patches on these players since their win, but the only two players who have stood out to me as having gained anything particularly extra from their world title are Espen Jorstad and Michael Mizrachi.

Espen is an ambassador for GTO Wizard, and Mizrachi was already a poker celebrity, and what he did in 2025 won't be matched. I think both of these players are an example of the top end of what poker players can expect in an extra EV from a Main Event win. 

Sponsorship has changed

In the case of Espen, he had been sponsored before and regularly created content anyway. That is the kind of player who stands to gain the most from the profile-raising of a Main Event win. 

In that respect, I think the only people who could benefit more would be well-established existing content creators, female poker players, and players from small countries (in poker terms) where they would be considered a minor celebrity. Think Joe Hachem in Australia. 

Sponsorship has changed dramatically since the days when Main Event champions would be guaranteed extra perks. The type of person who gets sponsored these days rarely gets a patch based on their poker success. One of the biggest examples of this might be yours truly, who is currently sponsored by Party Poker, and it's certainly nothing to do with my ability to take down major titles.  

So while there are people who certainly could get millions more in endorsements and perks by becoming the World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, I think that very few will. It's still the most coveted and impressive thing to have on a poker resume, but it no longer has the marketing clout it once did.