Walt Disney once said: “Around here … we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things.”
Global Poker may not be as big as Disney, but the sweepstakes poker company understands the importance of moving forward. That included plenty of improvements and innovations in 2020.
It may have been a challenging year for many companies, but online poker has actually thrived. Poker sites gave many an outlet to play a game they love right from their homes.
“Like all other social game companies, we saw a large influx of new players when COVID restricted live poker and also kept people at home,” Global Poker general manager David Lyons told USPoker. “We were delighted to see that our infrastructure coped well, but we worked on a lot of stability improvements in the spring and summer that have made the platform a lot more stable and scalable today.”
What is Global Poker?
Global Poker is a sweepstake poker site available to players in the US and Canada (excluding Washington and Quebec). Global functions as a social gaming site where players can play using a free virtual currency called Gold Coins (GC).
When purchases of additional Gold Coins are made, players receive Sweeps Coins (SC) as a bonus. These can be used in separate tournaments and ring games.
Players can also redeem Sweeps Coins for cash prizes and gift cards. Global Poker offers easy and safe options to purchase Gold Coins and cash out Sweeps Coins.
The sweepstakes poker setup is a unique online poker option ideal for many players.
2020 brought beta testing, bounties, and more
Global Poker kicked off the year with a new felt beta release in January. The new table felt allowed for smoother game play and added color options.
The software update was a major overhaul that allowed for future changes to take place over the course of the year.
In May, that overhaul allowed for bounty tournaments. These were loaded into the regular tournament schedule and became an instant hit among tournament grinders.
In a bounty tournament players redeem rewards for each player they knock out of the tournament. Every player is worth the same amount when they are eliminated.
The bounty element brings an interesting twist to a traditional poker tournament.
PKOs become the latest knockout at Global Poker
The bounty option ramped up even more in June with the launch of Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments. PKOs are a specific type of bounty tournament with an even bigger twist.
When a player takes out an opponent, that player cashes in 50% of the opponent’s bounty. Those funds go right in the player’s own account.
The other 50% is added to the bounty on the winning player’s head. That bounty can grow larger after knocking out even more opponents.
Near the end of the tournament, a player’s bounty may be much higher than a normal cash. Players who go deeper in a tournament can really cash in on eliminating more players.
The bounty updates led to the first Global Poker Bounty Series in October, which carried a SC500,000 guarantee. The series proved successful and players have also been able to get in daily PKO events as well ever since.
Global adds casino games, responsible gaming options in 2020
Beyond its sweepstakes poker offerings, Global Poker began adding even more casino games in early April. That included the Lightning Nudge and Lucky Show slots.
Throughout the year Global Poker also introduced table games such as Classic Blackjack and Caribbean Poker.
Another big step for the company came in May. Global Poker launched a major effort to help players ensure they were playing responsibly. With added casino games, the site allowed players to have more control over their site usage.
Players can now choose to take a timeout from poker and casino games by clicking the “Responsible Gaming” section. A second update in July allowed for players to limit their play.
Players can now self-serve their purchase limits. This enables a cap on how much they spend on Gold Coins on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
The responsible gaming section also advises players on how to seek support services.
Expanding on Twitch and adding a podcast
The year also saw some media expansion for Global Poker. In January, a few tournament regulars independently created a regular podcast called Talking Global Poker.
This weekly show is the brainchild of Global Poker players Sam Bernard (writer of the movie Rad), Ken Sumner, and Sean Connell. The podcast is not directly affiliated with Global Poker, but does focus on the site’s player community.
Episodes include interviews with regular grinders and up-to-date news regarding the site. One guest recently included Jesse Sylvia, runner-up in the 2012 WSOP Main Event. The podcast also gives away monthly prizes for the site.
Today we welcome @MrJesseJames4 to the pod! We discuss the pandemic, staking, stables, BTC, his deep runs, and the always shifting poker ecosystem. Available on all podcast formats. Like, RT, comment SN to win one of 5 @official_glp 11 SC tickets. https://t.co/yxpmmEehCF pic.twitter.com/KFgKJpGtU1
— Talking Global Poker (@PokerTalking) November 25, 2020
In 2020, Global also took major steps into the world of streaming. The operator launched GlobalPokerLive on Twitch in November 2019 but really started growing the channel in early 2020.
The nightly stream highlights some of the site’s biggest grinders. Players and viewers can win prizes, ask questions, and learn about the site from streamers such as:
- PokerDad2878
- Hoss
- Chawell
- Chef Will
- JWK24 Poker
To the future and beyond
While there have been plenty of additions in 2020, Global plans even more for 2021. That ranges from mobile improvements to new tournament offerings.
“I hate to make commitments, because I do not want to disappoint,” Lyon says. “However I can say that we expect to be able to tackle the first mixed (game) or or hi-lo variants by the middle of next year. And expect to see the return of Surge a lot sooner than you think.”
The site has also recently begun experimenting with synched breaks.
Merry Christmas. It’s happening. pic.twitter.com/CvJFKVGMTv
— David Lyons (@kalooki) December 18, 2020
Additionally, with more customers playing on phones, enhancing that medium is also on the horizon. The site offers an easy way to play via a browser on a mobile device. New tournament styles are also on the drawing board, according to head of marketing operations Henrik Nilsson.
“In our latest release in November, we improved card size in mobile mode, showdown hand time exposure, chat functionality, and more,” Nilsson says. “We are in the process of beta testing standard shootout tournaments plus all in shootout tournaments, and believe we will release these in the near future.”
Land some free Gold and Sweeps Coins
It was no coincidence that on St. Patrick’s Day, Global Poker added some extra incentives for players. The site began giving away a free Gold Coin daily with no purchase necessary.
The site even took it one step further in May by adding free daily Sweeps Coins as well. The free Gold and Sweeps Coin bonus is available to all players and located in the cashier.
The free coins increase for consecutive daily logins and the promotion resets after seven days.
Sunday majors rewarding big paydays
The big Sunday majors continue to pay out nice prize pools at Global Poker. The SC110 Sunday Teaser featured a SC25,000 guarantee on Dec. 20.
The event featured 280 entries and a SC28,000 prize pool. New Jersey’s “Cartermac” took the top spot for SC5,404.
The SC218 Sunday Scrimmage features a SC50,000 guarantee, but attracted 303 entries for a SC60,600 prize pool. Texas player “WRB5676” took the title for SC11,599. A big holiday weekend promises an opportunity for even bigger payouts on Sunday, Dec. 27.
★★★ Looking to get in the game at Global Poker? Check out USPoker’s complete review with exclusive bonus offers. ★★★
The post GLOBAL EXPANSION: 2020 Produced Major Platform Updates, Growth, and Expansion for Sweepstakes Site Global Poker appeared first on .