SWEDISH PLAYER SVEN RAGNAR ASTROM WINS WPT VENICE BY BWIN.

397 poker players participated last week in the first ever World Poker Tour event which occured Italy — WPT Venice, powered by bwin.

Bwin has been online since 1999, joined (actually purchased) Ongame in 2006, and is now one of the biggest poker sites in that poker network.

The €4000 tournament kicked off May 6 at Casino di Venezia, with a diverse international playing field, including poker pros Carlos Mortensen, Chad Brown, Surinder Sunar, Vanessa Rousso, Max "the Italian Pirate" Pescatori, Steve Sung, Patrick Bruel, and WPT Season VII Player of the Year, Betrand "Elky" Grospellier.

22-year old Sven Ragnar Astrom took home more than $542,000, after five days of play, a $25,000 seat in the WPT World Championship in Las Vegas, and an official WPT bracelet on Sunday when he defeated fellow Swede, Per Martin Jacobson. Jacobson was given $325,000 as runner-up.

Title sponsor bwin Poker had 13 qualifiers make it into the money, including Vincent Pasdeloup, who won his WPT Venice seat in a freeroll on bwin and turned that into €159,740 for a third place finish.

"This was our first event with World Poker Tour, and we are delighted with how well things worked out," says Manfred Bodner, Co-CEO of bwin. "The combination of the online and offline player experience coupled with the information systems and being able to offer bets on the tournament adds a whole new dimension to both sides."

Steve Lipscomb, WPT CEO and Founder said the following: "We are thrilled that our first event in Italy was a success and well-received by the players, We are pleased with the high player and pro turnout — especially for a non-televised event — and also with the unique elements that bwin brought to the table for this event. We hope to continue this level of success as we expand further into Italy, the rest of Europe and into other continents."

In addition to holding the event in the oldest casino in the world, bwin developed and introduced a Live Tournament Information System, which provided real-time streaming information such as leaderboards and bust-out updates throughout the tournament. bwin also created "Tournament Achievements," which awarded players who reached certain milestones, such as certain chip levels, first player to knock out an opponent, and the "Bubble Buster" award.

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