Bernhard Binder wins $10M as WSOP Paradise 2025 cements WSOP’s global leadership
The World Series of Poker® closed out a landmark year in spectacular fashion with WSOP Paradise 2025, a record-breaking festival that awarded more than $201 million in prize money and firmly established itself as the largest poker series ever held outside of Las Vegas.
Staged at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas, WSOP Paradise generated a total prize pool of $201,838,070, serving as the crowning achievement of an extraordinary 2025 for the WSOP brand. The success of the winter festival followed a record-setting summer series in Las Vegas, underscoring WSOP’s status as the undisputed global leader in live poker.
At the heart of the festival was the $25,000 Super Main Event, which exceeded all expectations by producing a prize pool of more than $70 million. The tournament now ranks as the eighth-largest in poker history and stands as the biggest single poker event ever hosted outside Las Vegas.
The Super Main Event title was claimed by 27-year-old Austrian poker professional Bernhard Binder, who captured his championship bracelet along with a $10,000,000 first-place prize. The payout matched the winner’s prize from the 2025 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, poker’s most prestigious tournament. Binder defeated French veteran Jean-Noël Thorel in heads-up play to emerge on top of a field packed with elite international talent.
A Defining Year for WSOP
WSOP Paradise was created to extend the prestige and scale of the summer World Series into the winter months, transforming the WSOP into a truly year-round global championship. The 2025 edition delivered on that vision, drawing 8,015 total entries and awarding 15 coveted WSOP gold bracelets.
Among the festival’s standout achievements were six bracelet events that each generated prize pools of $10 million or more, highlighting the continued global appetite for the WSOP experience.
Ty Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of WSOP, emphasized the long-term ambition behind the event. He noted that the organization’s goal is for WSOP Paradise to eventually rival the summer series in Las Vegas. According to Stewart, the success of a single tournament surpassing $70 million in prize money—alongside another $10 million first prize and constant action across the schedule—demonstrates that the festival is rapidly approaching that goal. He added that WSOP Paradise has already become the second-largest poker festival in the world and thanked the global poker community for embracing it as a new end-of-year tradition.
Record-Breaking Player Value
Beyond its historic prize pools, WSOP Paradise 2025 also raised the bar for player experience by delivering more than $10 million in added value. Participants received complimentary hotel accommodations at Atlantis Paradise Island, free airport transfers, and daily buffet dining throughout the series.
In addition, $4 million was distributed through the Paradise Parlay promotion, which rewarded players who had previously cashed in WSOP events earlier in the year. The initiative further strengthened the connection between the summer series in Las Vegas and the winter festival in the Bahamas.
With the conclusion of WSOP Paradise, the 2025 poker calendar officially comes to a close. The World Series of Poker will return in 2026 with WSOP Europe in Prague in March, followed by the 57th annual WSOP summer series on the iconic Las Vegas Strip, as the brand continues to expand its global footprint.
