2025 Series Prize Pools

A look back at the series prize pools on offer for most Australian poker series that took place in 2025, using The Hendon Mob and Facebook for a few missing results.

There are obviously many variables that have created the data shown in these charts, including different state legislation, major brands operating in multiple states, population, and the destinations themselves.

Australian poker continues to see steady growth, with total prize pools for series around Australia increasing from $88M in 2024 to more than $96M in 2025.

In terms of brands, the Australian Poker League (APL) continues to break records they set in 2024, dominating the market with more series and now over $30M. Crown Melbourne is back, almost doubling their 2024 total prize pools in 2025, and should grow even more in 2026 with the long-awaited return of the Aussie Millions. PlayLive found a way to enter the highly regulated Victorian market, launching their room in 2025 using hospitality fees rather than rake to produce almost $4M from three series, growing each time. The other major brand to show continued growth was Kings Sydney, with the King Room at Kogarah as well as Kingsford in the east and other rooms out west, while Kings Newcastle prize pools grew more than 50% too. From the regional and minor series, Southern Poker Tour surged past $1M in 2025, Empire Poker more than doubled their total series prize pools, and Mixed Games Academy continues to grow their player base and interest in other poker variants.

Looking at the state numbers, it was great to see an APL series back in Tasmania in late 2025 and something for their community. New South Wales took over as the state with the largest series prize pool from Queensland, which is basically due to The Star moving an almost $9M WPT Australia series to their Sydney property from the Gold Coast. Victorian prize pools fell to third due to Crown’s continued growth and PlayLive’s launch as mentioned, and South Australia stayed steady at over $5M.

If we dig down a little deeper into the cities, prize pools largely reflect the state prize pools in 2025, with most large series in the capital cities. Sydney played host to six of the top ten largest series in Australia, the Gold Coast hosted three in the top ten including Australia’s biggest series once again, the APL Million. Crown Melbourne hosted the only series in the top ten outside of Sydney or the Gold Coast.

With more than 34 series planned before next year has begun, 2026 promises to be another huge year in Australian poker.

Notes:

Gambier Poker was included in Adelaide & Regional in 2024. It has been separated in 2025.

Matchroom Poker – No HendonMob data from 2024 and was estimated $900K (3x $300K series) -2025 uses records that were found on Facebook and HendonMob

Poker Palace – Christmas Cup not on HendonMob yet, but clear data records were found on Facebook.

Timed Tournaments excluded.

Australian Poker Schedule appreciates operators that accurately updates HendonMob and provides full series summaries on social media and websites at the end of each series.

*All care was taken when compiling the data presented, it may not be perfect however I am happy it is greater than 98% accurate at time of publishing.