Betstars opens betting market for Team PokerStars Pros in SCOOP

The 2016 Spring Championship of Online Poker begins in three days, and for the first time poker players and fans will be able to root for and bet on their favorite Team Pros, as PokerStars.com, an Amaya Inc. brand, has introduced a dedicated SCOOP 2016 Team PokerStars Leaderboard, with Betstars offering odds on the winner.

In addition to wagers that people can make on Betstars, Jason Mercier and George Danzer have made a $10,000 heads-up bet between themselves on who will finish higher on the SCOOP 2016 Team PokerStars Leaderboard.

More than 30 Team PokerStars Pros will take part in SCOOP 2016, pitting their poker wits and tournament strategies against each other in a battle to be named number one Team PokerStars Pro for SCOOP 2016. The leaderboard will be posted on the PokerStars Blog – http://psta.rs/1W9OHUw – and updated at regular intervals, with revised odds on Betstars as the series progresses.

Any Team PokerStars member (incorporating Team PokerStars Pro and Team PokerStars Pro Online) who plays an event will be included, and the current favorite to take the title is Jason Mercier, who was SCOOP 2015 Player of the Year. The four-time SCOOP winner, who won three events last year, is 5/1 (6.0) to win the Team PokerStars Leaderboard, and is determined to retain his SCOOP Player of the Year title, too.

"Last year was amazing, winning the three titles and Player of the Year. I really love SCOOP!" Mercier said. "I'll play as many events as I can and whether it's a $200 event or a $20,000 one, I'm always focused on finishing first. The addition of the Team PokerStars leaderboard, the $10k side bet with George, and earning bragging rights over some of my best poker friends, will be an extra incentive to take the top spot."

George Danzer, who also has four SCOOP titles and the most cashes of any player in SCOOP history with 148 (40 more than fellow Team Pro Marcin "Goral" Horecki in second), will be vying to come top of the Team PokerStars Leaderboard, too.

"I've had some great success in SCOOP and was so close to being the Player of the Series a couple of years ago, so I'll be trying my best to go one better this time," Danzer said. "The extra spice and competition that the Team PokerStars Leaderboard, my side bet with Jason, and the betting maket adds, will make for an exciting couple of weeks."