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World Series of Poker Reveals Full 2024 WSOP Daily Event Schedule
Following a record-setting 2023, the world’s biggest poker series returns to the Las Vegas Strip for an encore in 2024.
The richest, most prestigious and longest-running poker series – the World Series of Poker® (WSOP®) – today announced its full daily event schedule for the 2024 World Series of Poker, following the success of the record-breaking tournament in 2023. The 55th edition of the series heads back to the Las Vegas Strip at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas.
The 2024 series will run from May 28 to July 17, 2024, offering nearly 700 tables, many new events and, of course, the highly coveted WSOP Main Event® Bracelet. The Main Event will begin on July 3, with four starting flights running until July 6. Late registration will be available on July 7-8 through Level 7 or around 4:40 p.m. on Day 2 of each day.
The Main Event Final Table will occur July 16-17 at Horseshoe Las Vegas. Last year’s Main Event drew a record 10,043 entrants and crowned Daniel Weinman as its champion. Hailing from Atlanta, Ga., Weinman became the first American to win the WSOP Main Event since 2018 taking home $12.1 million, the largest Main Event first-prize payout in series history.
Weinman and many former WSOP Main Event champions will kick off the 2024 series with an all-new event, the Champions Reunion No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout. Serving as Event #1 on this year’s schedule, the contest features a $5,000 buy-in and an exciting twist, allowing players who knock out a former Main Event champion to receive an automatic entry into the 2024 WSOP Main Event as a bounty. All living Main Event champions will be given a free entry to play in the event.
“We’re proud to be Las Vegas’s original Main Event,” said Ty Stewart, SVP & Executive Director of the WSOP. “Records are made to be broken, so our motto this year is bigger and better. With our best schedule ever and more than 100 additional poker tables, we look forward to welcoming legends, first-timers and everyone in between. If you’re a poker player, there is simply no experience on earth like the World Series of Poker.”
The opening week for the 55th edition of the WSOP contains more action-packed events, with the Champions Freezeout and Event #3 WSOP Kickoff No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout.
Other new and noteworthy series highlights include:
Seniors High Roller No-Limit Hold’em – Event #65: For the first time, players ages 50 and up can participate in an exclusive new high roller event with the Seniors High Roller No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Featuring a $5,000 buy-in and 50,000 starting stack, the three-day event begins on Wednesday, June 26.
Mixed No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot (8 Handed) – Event #41: Beginning on Saturday, June 15, this first-of-its-kind event will take place over three days. The buy-in for this event will be $1,500 with a starting stack of 25,000.
PokerNews Deep Stack Championship No-Limit Hold’em – Event #62: PokerNews will sponsor the $600 deep stack championship on June 25 as well as offering special promotions to put the spotlight on the low-stakes grinders. In addition to editorial coverage, for four weeks from May 28-June 24, players who participate in the daily $200, $250, or $400 deep stack tournaments at the WSOP will earn points and climb leaderboards. The top 10 point earners each week will get complimentary seats into the $600 PokerNews Deep Stack Championship.
Independence Day Celebration No-Limit Hold’em – Event #80: Celebrate Independence Day with a new three-day event at the WSOP. Flight A begins on Wednesday, July 3, and Flight B will begin on Thursday, July 4. Both flights contain $800 buy-ins and a starting stack of 40,000.
$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em During Main Event – Event #82: As Flight 1D of the Main Event occurs on Saturday, July 6, there will be a $1,000 buy-in Hold’em event at 7:00 p.m. that night. The two-day event will contain a starting stack of 20,000.
$3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship No-Limit Hold’em – Event #89: For players who bust out of the Main Event but want to remain a part of the high-stakes action, this new four-day event begins on July 11 with a $3,000 buy-in and a starting stack of 40,000.
More New Events at the 2024 WSOP Include:
Poker fans from around the world can enjoy the sights and sounds of the Las Vegas Strip while reveling in the history linked to Horseshoe Las Vegas. Horseshoe owns a special place in the legacy of the World Series of Poker, as the first-ever WSOP was held at Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas in 1970. Last summer, the WSOP unveiled the Hall of Fame Poker Room at Horseshoe Las Vegas, featuring 20 poker tables with non-stop action 24/7 and a permanent Poker Hall of Fame exhibit that pays tribute to the sport’s legends and history. The 2023 inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame was long-time poker great Brian Rast. The 2024 inductee will be announced this summer.
The WSOP Final Table, TV set and staging will again reside inside Horseshoe Las Vegas, and the main cage will be located at Paris Las Vegas. The two buildings are connected and share a parking garage, which can be accessed from Paris Drive. In addition to the new Versailles Tower featuring redesigned luxury guestrooms, Paris Las Vegas has become a mecca for foodies with the recent openings of several dining destinations led by restaurateurs and world-famous chefs, such as Nobu, Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay, The Bedford by Martha Stewart and Vanderpump à Paris.
Weekend marquee events will have adjusted starting flights during the 2024 WSOP. The events will now have either three starting flights Friday through Sunday or four starting flights Thursday through Sunday. This change results in popular events such as Monster Stack, Millionaire Maker, and Colossus now having three starting flights. Additionally, Mega Satellites will now be played as “Landmark Mega Satellites,” where participants will accumulate a certain amount of chips (e.g., 10x starting stack) to win a seat in the respective event.
Daily Deep Stack tournaments will run every day from May 28 to July 16, with buy-ins ranging from $200 to $400. In addition, Daily Landmark Mega Satellites will happen from May 28 to July 15 with buy-ins starting at $135 and topping off at $25,000.
Part of the record-breaking success of 2023 was due to international and domestic online satellites on GGPoker and WSOP.COM. GGPoker, the world’s leading online poker room, will again offer exclusive satellites to the 2024 WSOP.
“Last year, 774 players made the GGPoker Road to Vegas, cashing for over $5 Million in Main Event prizes,” said Daniel Negreanu, GGPoker Global Ambassador and six-time WSOP bracelet winner. “This summer, we aim to send 1,000 players to their WSOP Dream.”
Popular WSOP.COM Online Bracelet events return to action with domestic daily satellite qualifiers with Main Event satellites offered for as little as $1. In 2023, WSOP.COM qualified more than 450 players into the $10,000 Main Event with plans to exceed that figure this year. Also, in 2024 during each night of the series, WSOP.COM will host a guaranteed seat mega satellite for the next day’s bracelet event. Details on the date and location for the WSOP Circuit season-ending Tournament of Champions will be announced by March 15.
Main Event Maynia, the WSOP’s official guaranteed seat-qualifier series, returns in 2024, providing another way to qualify for the 2024 WSOP through land-based satellites at official partner casino resorts and card rooms throughout the country and the world. Participating locations include the Horseshoe St. Louis, Grand Victoria Casino Elgin, Harrah’s Cherokee, Horseshoe Tunica, Harrah’s Pompano Beach, Thunder Valley Casino Resort, Turning Stone Resort Casino, Horseshoe Las Vegas, Foxwoods Resort Casino, and Graton Casino and Resort.
PokerGO, the world’s largest poker content company and streaming platform, returns as the official livestream and production partner of the WSOP. Throughout the summer, PokerGO will livestream dozens of WSOP gold bracelet events, including live coverage of the 2024 WSOP Main Event, across PokerGO.com and other platforms. The full WSOP livestream schedule will be released soon and found at pokergo.com/schedule. Additionally, PokerGO will produce new WSOP episodes to air on CBS Sports, the exclusive domestic television home of the WSOP.
When booking early, entrants of the WSOP bracelet events can enjoy reduced hotel room rates at Horseshoe and Paris, as well as all Caesars Entertainment resorts in Las Vegas, by using the special advanced booking code “WSOP24”. Rates are based on availability and are subject to change. Please visit our reservations page to view a complete list of rates across all Caesars Entertainment properties.
To view the entire bracelet schedule, please visit wsop.com, where a downloadable version is provided.
Key Operational Notes
Online Registration: To avoid queues and congestion, WSOP encourages participants to utilize the online/mobile registration process to sign up for events, allowing players to register and pay online. WSOP uses www.BravoPokerLive.com to manage online/mobile registrations. Participants who register online will need to visit the Champagne Ballroom located in the Le Centre Des Conventions in Paris Las Vegas and have their identification validated. Once verified, players can simply pick event(s) online via Bravo, utilize the self-service kiosks located throughout the Paris and Horseshoe convention centers to print their seat cards and go directly to their table. Registration will open in May. WSOP will announce to the public when it is live.
In-Person Registration: The main registration area will be in the Champagne Ballroom, with more stations added to the main registration and VIP cages. Hours of operation begin Tuesday, May 28 at 9:00 a.m. and will remain open from 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. with a 90-minute break from 5:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. every day through Wednesday, July 17. Participants must present valid photo identification, their Caesars Rewards card, and payment to enter events.
Caesars Rewards (CR): The location will be in the Champagne Ballroom near the main and VIP registration cages for participants to obtain loyalty cards. Caesars Rewards kiosks will also be available for players to reprint their cards without having to visit a CR representative.
Methods of Payment for WSOP Events: Cash, credit/debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express), cashier’s checks drawn from the participant’s accredited bank account and made out to the participant, Paris or Horseshoe gaming chips, Bravo TBIC or WSOP Tournament Account are all acceptable forms of payment for 2024 WSOP. Additional fees will be incurred on all credit/debit card transactions. Participants using credit/debit cards must have a valid ID that matches the cardholder’s name present on the credit card used for the transaction.
WSOP Tournament Account: Participants can place money on their account when they arrive using cash or Paris/Horseshoe gaming chips. Participants can also deposit tournament winnings into their WSOP Tournament Account. After setting up an account at the WSOP Main Cage in the Champagne Ballroom, the participant will have the option to register online or via mobile device (through www.BravoPokerLive.com) for WSOP tournaments with the funds used to initiate the account and simply print seat card(s) at one of the kiosks – avoiding the need to use the registration line to enter events. Participants who would like to pay with a wire transfer will need to setup a Bravo TBIC account through www.BravoPokerLive.com.
Payouts – Participants collect their winnings at the WSOP Main Cage in the Champagne Ballroom. Participants can request one of the following methods of payment: cash, wire transfer, casino chips, check, or tournament account deposit. Those who have a Bravo Tournament Buy-In Account can direct funds back to their account.
International Participants are required to bring an additional form of identification that shows a residential address, such as a driver’s license, signed lease agreement, a utility bill or a mobile phone bill.
Satellites for WSOP gold bracelet events have begun on WSOP.com and will run continuously through the event. Outside the U.S., the WSOP has deepened its partnership with GGPoker, which has exclusivity to run satellite packages to the WSOP. More details to be announced soon.
Deposits for WSOP.com will now be located just past the Payouts & Player Services in the Champagne Ballroom.
To view important details about this year’s event, visit WSOP.com/2024. This page will be live leading up to and during the event, where players can find all relevant information about the WSOP. Structure sheets for each individual event are expected to be posted on WSOP.com beginning in March.
Participants must bring with them valid government-issued picture identification with their current residential address, as well as a secondary form of ID (like a bill or statement confirming address). Participants residing outside the United States must have a valid passport, in addition to another form of credible identification that includes address information.
The schedule, events, start times, end times and locations of events are subject to change. Tournament chips have no cash value. Winners will be required to provide a valid picture ID. Tax forms will be completed for those with winnings in excess of $5,000 net of event buy-in. Participants without a Tax Identification Number and foreign players from non-tax treaty countries are subject to up to 30 percent tax withholding.
WSOP reserves the right to cancel, change or modify the tournament or any tournament event, in part or in whole, without notice.
Anton Eshtokin
Anton Eshtokin, Chief Marketing Officer at Boomerang Partners: Winning Golden Boomerang Awards is a meaningful professional marker within the industry
1. GBA is entering its third season in 2026. Looking back at the journey from the very first edition in 2024 — how would you describe how the tournament has evolved?
Perhaps the most significant change is that the Golden Boomerang Awards has clearly moved beyond being just another industry competition and has become a recognized brand within the affiliate marketing space. Over the past three years, we have not only increased brand awareness but also earned trust and built a strong community of participants who return to compete and improve their results.
I can confidently say that today, even participation in the GBA is a mark of quality. Why? Because it reflects a certain level of professionalism in the market. Winning, especially in the third season, becomes a clear marker of being among the very best in the industry.
What makes this evolution important is that formats like this are still relatively rare. GBA sits at the intersection of competition, expertise, and industry recognition – and we see it as a platform that not only rewards performance, but also contributes to the overall development of the affiliate market.
2. In 2025, more than 400 affiliate teams participated. What does that number tell you about what the market is looking for from formats like GBA?
For us, this is a clear signal that the market is actively seeking formats that go beyond pure performance-based incentives. You see, traditional affiliate programs are heavily focused on financial rewards for traffic – and there’s plenty of that in the market already. The significant growth in the number of Golden Boomerang Awards participants from season to season (226 in the first, 400+ in the second) demonstrates that affiliate teams have a strong demand for something different. I’m talking about competition, visibility, and a sense of belonging to a professional community.
GBA taps into that by offering not just rewards, but recognition and experience. Through our collaboration with AC Milan (I remind you that Boomerang Partners is an Official Regional Partner of AC Milan), we’re able to provide participants with opportunities that go beyond monetary value – things that are difficult to replicate within standard affiliate program structures.
Ultimately, it’s about creating a sense of legacy. Participation in the Golden Boomerang Awards becomes part of a longer-term professional story, not just a short-term performance cycle.
3. The theme of this season is ‘Beyond the Moment.’ Where did that idea come from, and why does it feel right for this particular stage of GBA’s life?
The idea behind “Beyond the Moment” came naturally as we entered the GBA’s third season. After two successful years, it felt like the right time to shift the focus from short-term wins to long-term performance.
It’s no secret that the affiliate market is highly volatile. Here, strong results can come quickly, sometimes unexpectedly. But staying at the top is a completely different challenge.
In the third season of Golden Boomerang Awards, we’re focusing on what exists beyond the moment of victory. Winning is important, but it’s only a snapshot. What truly defines top-tier affiliate teams is the work behind them. These are consistent execution, strategic thinking, adaptability, and the ability to identify new opportunities.
Thus, “Beyond the Moment” is about recognizing that invisible layer of effort that separates sustainable success from a one-time result.
4. Five months is a long run for an affiliate tournament. Engagement typically drops in the middle of any long competition. What specific mechanisms did you build into GBA 2026 to prevent that?
You’re right to point out the tournament’s length and the importance of maintaining participant engagement over such a distance, but we deliberately set this challenge for ourselves. That’s why we paid close attention to developing a clear and effective structure for the Golden Boomerang Awards. In the third season, it’s a multi-stage experience rather than a single continuous race. The season is divided into three phases, conceptually aligned with a football match structure, each with its own rules, objectives, and rewards.
This creates natural reset points and new incentives throughout the tournament, helping maintain momentum.
We’ve also introduced mechanics such as boosts and mid-season entry opportunities. This allows new affiliate teams to join and still compete for top positions, rather than being locked out by early leaders.
Additionally, not all mechanics are revealed upfront. Rolling out new elements during the season adds anticipation and keeps participants engaged over time.
5. 2026 is an extraordinary year for sport — the FIFA World Cup, the Winter Olympics, one of the most packed global calendars in recent memory. How does that shift the opportunity and the pressure for sports-focused affiliates?
Yes, 2026 is an exceptionally busy year for sports (and this applies not only to the past Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026, but also to many other high-profile tournaments), which creates both opportunity and pressure.
On one hand, a packed global calendar means more traffic peaks and more chances to scale. On the other hand, it increases competition – both in media buying and in capturing audience attention.
Who can succeed in such conditions? – Those affiliate teams that don’t just react to a given sporting event, but instead focus more on preparation and strategy. This means understanding which moments matter, how to prioritize them, and how to allocate resources effectively.
That’s why we introduced a dedicated Sports Marketing and Betting Calendar 2026 earlier this year. Combined with participation in the Golden Boomerang Awards, it provides affiliate teams with a more structured approach to the sports season and to capitalize on key moments.
In this context, GBA acts as an additional performance layer – amplifying focus and execution during a highly competitive period.
6. In your view, what genuinely motivates a top-tier affiliate in 2026 — is it financial upside, status, access, something else? And how does GBA address that?
Top-tier affiliates in 2026 are driven by more than just financial upside, although revenue remains a fundamental factor.
For experienced teams, money alone is often not a sufficient long-term motivator. They are already operating at a level where access, recognition, and positioning within the industry become equally important.
This includes being part of a trusted network, gaining visibility, and accessing opportunities that are not typically available through standard affiliate programs.
That’s where the Golden Boomerang Awards are positioned differently. It’s not just about rewards – it’s about status, professional recognition, and belonging to a high-level community.
Combined with the competitive nature of the season, this creates a stronger and more sustainable layer of motivation.
7. TIME TO WIN closed on March 31. It was directly connected to GBA — participants earned bonus points carrying into the new season. How do you see that handoff working, and what did TIME TO WIN teach you going into GBA 2026?
TIME TO WIN and Golden Boomerang Awards are designed to function as part of a unified ecosystem rather than separate competitions.
TIME TO WIN acted as a high-intensity entry point into the year. It helped re-engage our affiliate partners after the holiday season and encouraged a more sprint-based approach to performance, where teams actively test tools and strategies.
GBA, which follows immediately after, shifts the focus to long-term consistency and sustained results.
The connection between the two tournaments is also structural: participants from TIME TO WIN carry bonus points into the Golden Boomerang Awards. This creates continuity and rewards early engagement.
Overall, our goal is to build a system where affiliate partners stay engaged throughout the year – not just for short-term wins, but as part of a long-term collaboration.
8. If GBA is still running five years from now and has become exactly what you want it to be — what does that look like?
We would like the Golden Boomerang Awards to become a widely recognized and trusted benchmark within the affiliate industry. Already, we have serious reasons to believe that this goal will be achieved. These include growing interest from affiliate teams and participant numbers, increased media attention, and deeper engagement from the market.
A key focus going forward is trust. That’s why GBA is positioned as a performance-driven award, based on transparent data, a clear leaderboard, and measurable results.
Success would mean that winning the Golden Boomerang Awards is not just an achievement for the winner, but a meaningful professional marker within the industry.
Rather than competing directly with traditional awards, we aim to strengthen our niche as a highly practical, performance-based competition.
9. What would you say to an affiliate who is sitting on the fence right now, wondering whether GBA 2026 is worth their time and attention?
It’s worth approaching that question from a practical perspective. We all know that the affiliate marketing space is highly competitive. Staying passive in it can hardly be called a winning strategy. By participating in the Golden Boomerang Awards 2026, affiliate teams gain a structured opportunity to test their capabilities in a visible, high-pressure environment.
At the same time, the benefits are clear for all participants. For experienced affiliates, it’s a way to benchmark themselves against strong competitors and gain recognition. For newer players, it’s an opportunity to accelerate learning and better understand what high-level performance looks like.
There’s also value in being part of a professional community – exchanging experience, observing others, and staying aligned with market dynamics.
So the real question becomes not “is it worth it?”, but “what do you miss by not participating?” – especially in a year with this level of competition and opportunity.
The post Anton Eshtokin, Chief Marketing Officer at Boomerang Partners: Winning Golden Boomerang Awards is a meaningful professional marker within the industry appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Vegangster has become the first iGaming platform to integrate the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI agents to interact directly with platform systems in real time.
MCP is an open protocol that gives AI agents a structured way to communicate with software environments, allowing them to understand context, retrieve data, and perform actions on the user’s behalf. Instead of building separate integrations for each use case, MCP standardises how AI agents interact with platform systems, making integrations faster to deploy and easier to scale.
For player support, this means agents can resolve common queries, including deposit status, bonus conditions, and account issues. Instead of routing tickets or escalating requests, agents retrieve live data and resolve queries instantly within a single interaction.
On the operator side, tasks that previously required navigating multiple interface sections or exporting reports can now be handled through plain-language prompts: filtering player lists, reviewing performance figures, adjusting configurations. The practical effect is a shorter onboarding curve and faster execution of day-to-day tasks.
Michael Oziransky, Chief Product Officer at Vegangster, sees this as foundational rather than incremental:
“AI agents interacting with the platform mark a fundamental shift. What we are seeing now are just the most obvious use cases. The real value of MCP is in its flexibility. This opens the door to entirely new ways of operating and building on top of the platform. We are proud to be the first to bring this to iGaming.”
The integration is currently in beta with selected operators, with wider availability planned soon. Early adopters can already move beyond traditional interfaces and begin operating the platform through AI agents.
Press Contact
Romans Kozlovskis
The post Vegangster Becomes First iGaming Platform to Support AI Agent Integration via MCP appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Anton Eshtokin
Anton Eshtokin, Chief Marketing Officer at Boomerang Partners: Winning Golden Boomerang Awards is a meaningful professional marker within the industry
1. GBA is entering its third season in 2026. Looking back at the journey from the very first edition in 2024 — how would you describe how the tournament has evolved?
Perhaps the most significant change is that the Golden Boomerang Awards has clearly moved beyond being just another industry competition and has become a recognized brand within the affiliate marketing space. Over the past three years, we have not only increased brand awareness but also earned trust and built a strong community of participants who return to compete and improve their results.
I can confidently say that today, even participation in the GBA is a mark of quality. Why? Because it reflects a certain level of professionalism in the market. Winning, especially in the third season, becomes a clear marker of being among the very best in the industry.
What makes this evolution important is that formats like this are still relatively rare. GBA sits at the intersection of competition, expertise, and industry recognition – and we see it as a platform that not only rewards performance, but also contributes to the overall development of the affiliate market.
2. In 2025, more than 400 affiliate teams participated. What does that number tell you about what the market is looking for from formats like GBA?
For us, this is a clear signal that the market is actively seeking formats that go beyond pure performance-based incentives. You see, traditional affiliate programs are heavily focused on financial rewards for traffic – and there’s plenty of that in the market already. The significant growth in the number of Golden Boomerang Awards participants from season to season (226 in the first, 400+ in the second) demonstrates that affiliate teams have a strong demand for something different. I’m talking about competition, visibility, and a sense of belonging to a professional community.
GBA taps into that by offering not just rewards, but recognition and experience. Through our collaboration with AC Milan (I remind you that Boomerang Partners is an Official Regional Partner of AC Milan), we’re able to provide participants with opportunities that go beyond monetary value – things that are difficult to replicate within standard affiliate program structures.
Ultimately, it’s about creating a sense of legacy. Participation in the Golden Boomerang Awards becomes part of a longer-term professional story, not just a short-term performance cycle.
3. The theme of this season is ‘Beyond the Moment.’ Where did that idea come from, and why does it feel right for this particular stage of GBA’s life?
The idea behind “Beyond the Moment” came naturally as we entered the GBA’s third season. After two successful years, it felt like the right time to shift the focus from short-term wins to long-term performance.
It’s no secret that the affiliate market is highly volatile. Here, strong results can come quickly, sometimes unexpectedly. But staying at the top is a completely different challenge.
In the third season of Golden Boomerang Awards, we’re focusing on what exists beyond the moment of victory. Winning is important, but it’s only a snapshot. What truly defines top-tier affiliate teams is the work behind them. These are consistent execution, strategic thinking, adaptability, and the ability to identify new opportunities.
Thus, “Beyond the Moment” is about recognizing that invisible layer of effort that separates sustainable success from a one-time result.
4. Five months is a long run for an affiliate tournament. Engagement typically drops in the middle of any long competition. What specific mechanisms did you build into GBA 2026 to prevent that?
You’re right to point out the tournament’s length and the importance of maintaining participant engagement over such a distance, but we deliberately set this challenge for ourselves. That’s why we paid close attention to developing a clear and effective structure for the Golden Boomerang Awards. In the third season, it’s a multi-stage experience rather than a single continuous race. The season is divided into three phases, conceptually aligned with a football match structure, each with its own rules, objectives, and rewards.
This creates natural reset points and new incentives throughout the tournament, helping maintain momentum.
We’ve also introduced mechanics such as boosts and mid-season entry opportunities. This allows new affiliate teams to join and still compete for top positions, rather than being locked out by early leaders.
Additionally, not all mechanics are revealed upfront. Rolling out new elements during the season adds anticipation and keeps participants engaged over time.
5. 2026 is an extraordinary year for sport — the FIFA World Cup, the Winter Olympics, one of the most packed global calendars in recent memory. How does that shift the opportunity and the pressure for sports-focused affiliates?
Yes, 2026 is an exceptionally busy year for sports (and this applies not only to the past Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026, but also to many other high-profile tournaments), which creates both opportunity and pressure.
On one hand, a packed global calendar means more traffic peaks and more chances to scale. On the other hand, it increases competition – both in media buying and in capturing audience attention.
Who can succeed in such conditions? – Those affiliate teams that don’t just react to a given sporting event, but instead focus more on preparation and strategy. This means understanding which moments matter, how to prioritize them, and how to allocate resources effectively.
That’s why we introduced a dedicated Sports Marketing and Betting Calendar 2026 earlier this year. Combined with participation in the Golden Boomerang Awards, it provides affiliate teams with a more structured approach to the sports season and to capitalize on key moments.
In this context, GBA acts as an additional performance layer – amplifying focus and execution during a highly competitive period.
6. In your view, what genuinely motivates a top-tier affiliate in 2026 — is it financial upside, status, access, something else? And how does GBA address that?
Top-tier affiliates in 2026 are driven by more than just financial upside, although revenue remains a fundamental factor.
For experienced teams, money alone is often not a sufficient long-term motivator. They are already operating at a level where access, recognition, and positioning within the industry become equally important.
This includes being part of a trusted network, gaining visibility, and accessing opportunities that are not typically available through standard affiliate programs.
That’s where the Golden Boomerang Awards are positioned differently. It’s not just about rewards – it’s about status, professional recognition, and belonging to a high-level community.
Combined with the competitive nature of the season, this creates a stronger and more sustainable layer of motivation.
7. TIME TO WIN closed on March 31. It was directly connected to GBA — participants earned bonus points carrying into the new season. How do you see that handoff working, and what did TIME TO WIN teach you going into GBA 2026?
TIME TO WIN and Golden Boomerang Awards are designed to function as part of a unified ecosystem rather than separate competitions.
TIME TO WIN acted as a high-intensity entry point into the year. It helped re-engage our affiliate partners after the holiday season and encouraged a more sprint-based approach to performance, where teams actively test tools and strategies.
GBA, which follows immediately after, shifts the focus to long-term consistency and sustained results.
The connection between the two tournaments is also structural: participants from TIME TO WIN carry bonus points into the Golden Boomerang Awards. This creates continuity and rewards early engagement.
Overall, our goal is to build a system where affiliate partners stay engaged throughout the year – not just for short-term wins, but as part of a long-term collaboration.
8. If GBA is still running five years from now and has become exactly what you want it to be — what does that look like?
We would like the Golden Boomerang Awards to become a widely recognized and trusted benchmark within the affiliate industry. Already, we have serious reasons to believe that this goal will be achieved. These include growing interest from affiliate teams and participant numbers, increased media attention, and deeper engagement from the market.
A key focus going forward is trust. That’s why GBA is positioned as a performance-driven award, based on transparent data, a clear leaderboard, and measurable results.
Success would mean that winning the Golden Boomerang Awards is not just an achievement for the winner, but a meaningful professional marker within the industry.
Rather than competing directly with traditional awards, we aim to strengthen our niche as a highly practical, performance-based competition.
9. What would you say to an affiliate who is sitting on the fence right now, wondering whether GBA 2026 is worth their time and attention?
It’s worth approaching that question from a practical perspective. We all know that the affiliate marketing space is highly competitive. Staying passive in it can hardly be called a winning strategy. By participating in the Golden Boomerang Awards 2026, affiliate teams gain a structured opportunity to test their capabilities in a visible, high-pressure environment.
At the same time, the benefits are clear for all participants. For experienced affiliates, it’s a way to benchmark themselves against strong competitors and gain recognition. For newer players, it’s an opportunity to accelerate learning and better understand what high-level performance looks like.
There’s also value in being part of a professional community – exchanging experience, observing others, and staying aligned with market dynamics.
So the real question becomes not “is it worth it?”, but “what do you miss by not participating?” – especially in a year with this level of competition and opportunity.
The post Anton Eshtokin, Chief Marketing Officer at Boomerang Partners: Winning Golden Boomerang Awards is a meaningful professional marker within the industry appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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