The Brazilian Poker Championship, organized by the BSOP (Brazilian Series of Poker), reached an impressive milestone in 2026. During a ceremony held on the first day of competitions at the BSOP São Paulo, the second stage of the current season, it was announced that, adding up all the prizes distributed over the 20 years of the event, the value reached an impressive R$1 billion.
If all 141 stages to reach this number are considered, the average prize distributed per event is just over R$7 million. However, specific data shows the size – and speed – of the sport’s growth in the country.
To reach R$500 million in prizes distributed, it was necessary to add up all the stages from 2006 until the middle of 2023. To reach R$1 billion, there were just 14 more stages. In other words, the average, considering only these events, jumped to more than R$35.7 million in prizes distributed.
How the growth of BSOP occurred
With such impressive growth, BSOP CEO Rafael Moraes makes a bold prediction. “I think we’ll reach R$2 billion by 2028. It’s a bit of an exaggeration, right? But I think we’re in a really cool moment, a really great moment. The numbers are numbers, and I think they just show how much we’ve grown.”
An example of the growth occurred at BSOP Millions 2025, the stage that traditionally ends the Brazilian Poker Championship season and which is also the largest in terms of duration (16 days) and values handled.
It was at this event that Brazil hosted, for the first time, a tournament with a buy-in (registration) of R$500,000, which reserved R$6 million for the champion alone and more than R$17 million in prize money in total, in addition to registering a significant record breaking in the sport.
Until then, the largest prize pool distributed in a single stage had been in the previous edition of BSOP Millions, in 2024. It was around R$96 million. In 2025, the increase was 40.5%, reaching R$ 134.94 million distributed over the 16 days of the competition.
However, to reach this level, many challenges had to be overcome, as explained by Devanir Campos, current CFO and founder of BSOP. “In the beginning, poker had so many challenges just to happen that we couldn’t have a longevity horizon.”
“We believed a lot, we had a lot of desire to make it happen, and we had, I think most importantly, a passion for poker. We wanted to have a place to play and believed that we weren’t doing anything wrong, I think that was the main thing”, added Campos.
Changes in the poker landscape
After 20 years, the scenario is different: poker is considered a mind sport by IMSA (International Mind Sports Association) and has had the legal approval of a Minister of Sports. The founder explains how important this moment was for the sport.
“I think a big turning point was when the Minister of Sports, Aldo Rebelo, came to open a stage of the BSOP, in 2013. He came to give an opening speech and recognize poker as a legal activity. This really brought a change in level, due to the institutional figure that a Minister has.”
According to him, “I think that there we really had a great solidity and it was the beginning, perhaps, of a new era. Along with this new era, we started to have much more visibility of celebrities, many more people wanting to associate with their image and losing their fear of saying that they played poker”, he explains.
Ronaldo Nazário, former player and businessman, was present at the opening mentioned by Devanir Campos. Like him, other names in the sport practice the sport, with emphasis on the athlete Neymar Jr., who annually participates in an event organized by the BSOP that bears his name, the Olympic champions Maurren Maggi and Rodrigão, and other names in football, such as Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Nenê, Marcos Leonardo, Jonathan Calleri and Memphis Depay.
About the Brazilian Poker Championship
Currently, the Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) is the largest poker tournament in Latin America, created in 2006. Recognized globally as the Brazilian Poker Championship, the BSOP promotes this sport of the mind and attracts players from all over the world.
With several stages held in Brazil, it offers tournaments for all levels and is considered one of the biggest events in world poker, awarded at the Global Poker Awards, recognized as the Oscar of the sport, as the best circuit of the year.
