Another action-packed year is behind us, and we can say with certainty that poker is as healthy as ever.
In 2024, we saw major poker tours break attendance records, mainstream celebrities appear on top poker shows, and the biggest poker freeroll of all time play out in Las Vegas.
All the amazing stories we saw in 2024 may be only a prelude to what awaits us in 2025 as another January rolls around, bringing plenty to be excited about.
We take a quick look into the future and try to predict the top 10 things we can all look forward to in poker in 2025.
#10 – New Cheating and RTA Scandals
Success and expansion stories are what all poker fans love to see, but unfortunately, things can’t always be quite so positive.
Since its inception, poker has attracted a handful of troublemakers along with thousands of players simply looking to enjoy the game, and this has not changed with the modernization of the game.
In recent years, we have seen cheating scandals arise in both live and online arenas, ranging from the Mike Postle Scandal and Ali Imsirovic cheating allegations to online scandals involving sites like GGPoker and ACR Poker just last year.
Going into 2025, we can only hope that fewer such situations will come up, but it is reasonable to expect that at least a few will.
The best we can expect is that such scandals will be handled swiftly and effectively without causing too much damage to the players involved or the overall reputation of the game.
#9 – Growth of Regulated Online Poker in the US
While sweepstakes poker provides an interesting alternative, most American players are still looking forward to a day when they will be able to play real money online poker once again.
The expansion of regulated online poker throughout the US has been painfully slow, but some progress has been made.
One major move that’s almost guaranteed to happen in 2025 is Pennsylvania joining the interstate compact (MSIGA), which allows sites to merge their player pools across state lines.
Sites like PokerStars, WSOP, and BetMGM already do so in states like Michigan and New Jersey, and Pennsylvania is now about to become the next member of the compact.
Beyond the expansion of MSIGA, we could also see the first operators launch in West Virginia, a state that has in theory legalized online poker, and new regulations come into power in other states.
Yet, it is not realistic to expect 2025 to be a year when online poker becomes widely available across the entire USA, which is why sweepstakes poker will still remain a key option for poker players looking for action.
#8 – Expanded Poker Streams and New Locations
Poker content has evolved over the years, and live streams have become by far the most popular type of poker content lately.
Shows like Hustler Casino Live, Poker at the Lodge, and Bally Live Poker get tens of thousands of poker fans watching live and millions of hits on a monthly basis.
The live-streaming poker industry is expanding even further, with brand-new shows hitting the market and existing ones expanding their reach.
As the undisputed leader in the live streaming game, HCL recently launched a new streaming studio in Cyprus, and has already streamed several exciting high-stakes games from this new location.
New locations also mean new local players who bring new vibes, playing styles, and stories for fans to interact with.
2025 could be the year we see multiple new streaming locations open up, and multiple streaming shows competing for viewership each day of the week.
For poker fans, this is all good news, as it means more live streaming content they can enjoy, and potentially multiple shows running each day to pick from.
#7 – Influx of New Generations of Poker Players
Poker has been growing at a steady pace over the last couple of years, but one thing it needs to keep growing is interest among the younger generations.
Fortunately, that interest is not lacking, as we see more and more very young faces making their way to major poker events around the world.
The poker community owes a lot in this regard to a number of young vloggers who have been bringing their content to these new generations and allowing them to see the game through the eyes of their peers for the first time.
The poker vlogging scene is absolutely exploding, and this expansion is bringing in new players who may have otherwise never heard of the game.
In 2025, we can expect to see even more young players take their cameras to the felt and try to make their dreams come true in front of an audience, inadvertently advertising the game to millions of potential players around the globe.
The next time you get annoyed to see someone bring a camera to the table, just remember that poker might not be booming as much as it is without the efforts of these pioneers of a new poker era.
#6 – Return of the Million Dollar Cash Game
Hustler Casino Live has become the most successful poker show in the world over the last few years. Despite recent controversy involving former co-owner Nick Vertucci, HCL has survived and thrived in recent months.
The show brought us two epic Million Dollar Games over the last couple of years, and it is highly likely that an even bigger Million Dollar Game awaits us in 2025.
With more and more high-stakes players coming to prominence recently and Bitcoin reaching an all-time high, the 2025 Million Dollar Game could be by far the biggest yet.
Now left as the show’s only official owner and producer, it will be down to Ryan Feldman to bring together epic lineups and secure that action runs across multiple days.
Ryan has shown an amazing ability to attract top recreational poker players to the show, which is what’s necessary to make a Million Dollar Game actually run for an extended period of time.
The next Million Dollar Game will likely go down in the summer of 2025, and it will be interesting to see which players make the lineup for what could be the biggest televised poker game of the year.
#5 – A New WSOP Main Event Attendance Record
The World Series of Poker being acquired by GGPoker’s top investor means the two brands will now be joined at the hip, and this could be great news for WSOP.
GGPoker has been sending thousands of players to the Series each year via various qualifying paths, and that number is only about to go up in 2025.
NSUS Group will be looking to build the WSOP brand’s popularity even further, and it will no doubt use the GGPoker platform to ensure this growth.
The WSOP Main Event has already been setting records over the last couple of years, and there is no reason to believe things will slow down in 2025.
In fact, the 2025 WSOP Main Event is very likely to shatter its own attendance record quite heavily as the new owners push to demonstrate their dominance over the poker industry as a whole.
#4 – More Sweepstakes Poker Opportunities for Americans
Real-money online poker remains a dream for many Americans, as only a few states offer regulated poker sites as we enter 2025.
In recent years, sweepstakes poker has been offered as an alternative, with sites like Global Poker and Clubs Poker being at the forefront of the sweepstakes expansion.
In 2024, the World Poker Tour announced the launch of ClubWPT Gold, a brand-new sweepstakes poker platform associated with a major and internationally acclaimed poker brand.
ClubWPT Gold was launched with plenty of noise, as more than $5,000,000 in prizes was given away to players who pre-registered for the site this winter.
To make things even more interesting, PokerGO has also started promoting its PlayPokerGO app, which will be another sweepstakes poker option for Americans in 2025.
Overall, players in the US and Canada will have plenty of options, and some of these could involve massive player pools that players in this part of the world have not seen in a long time.
#3 – New Mid-Stakes PokerStars Tour
PokerStars has been one of the main driving forces of live tournament poker for over two decades, and it remained so in 2024.
Most recently, the operator announced one major change to its tournament schedule for 2025, and it has to do with its mid-major tours.
Starting in 2025, PokerStars will be launching PokerStars Open, a brand-new poker tour that will replace the likes of Eureka, UKIPT, FPS, and Estrellas Poker Tour.
Instead of these small regional tours, PokerStars will be aiming to create a single multi-national tour that will hopefully attract players from all parts of Europe and beyond.
The operator has already announced the schedule for the first season of PokerStars Open, and it includes stops in Campione, Dublin, Namur, Malaga, Manchester, and Cannes.
Spread across Europe, the PokerStars Open tour will feature million Euro Main Events at each stop, giving all players a chance to compete for life-changing money at a reasonable buyin level.
As 2025 launches, players across Europe will have a chance to log into their PokerStars accounts and compete for seats in PokerStars Open events via a series of satellite tournaments that will be featured for each and every stop.
#2 – Faster Registrations at the WSOP
In 2024, the WSOP brand was acquired by NSUS Group Inc, the investment group that stands behind GGPoker, the world’s biggest online poker operator.
The merger between WSOP and GGPoker didn’t come as a huge surprise, considering the two already had a close partnership over the previous years, but it is one that will bring some changes to the WSOP.
GGPoker’s lead ambassador Daniel Negreanu recently announced that the first big change related to the acquisition will be coming in 2025, and it will have to do with the WSOP+ app.
The WSOP+ app will apparently allow players to register for WSOP events without any waiting in lines, as the entire process will become automated.
According to Negreanu, players will be able to deposit money into the app, buy into any tournament they like, and get a seat card assigned to them directly through the app. Take your phone to the table, show it to the dealer, and get seated immediately!
For thousands of players who play the WSOP every year and are used to standing in long lines, this could be one of the most welcome changes in poker in 2025, and it could be the one that takes WSOP to the next level in terms of poker tournament organization.
#1- Improved Rules and Security at Live Poker Tours
The 2024 “Laptopgate” scandal attracted quite a bit of scrutiny from the poker community and highlighted a major problem live poker could face in the light of emerging technologies.
The champion had help from poker professionals who were quite clearly using solvers on their laptop to run simulations of recently played hands, and this didn’t sit well with the recreational players.
The debate that came from it sparked a number of major poker tours, including the WPT and WSOP, to change the rules for upcoming events and focus on preventing the use of such tools in live events.
In 2025, we can expect all WSOP, WPT, ETP, and other major poker tournaments to enforce rules that prohibit the use of electronic devices in the tournament area and perhaps even restrict interactions with the rail altogether.
These new rules will being enforced should help protect recreational players and maintain the health of the entire live poker ecosystem for years to come.
