[11] It was an invitational event sponsored by Tom Moore of Castle Hills, Texas, and held at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno.

[11][14] In 2004, Harrah's Entertainment (now Caesars Entertainment) purchased Binion's Horseshoe, retained the rights to the Horseshoe and World Series of Poker brands, sold the hotel and casino to MTR Gaming Group, and announced that the 2005 Series events would be held at the Harrah's-owned Rio Hotel and Casino, located just off the Las Vegas Strip.

The final two days of the 2005 WSOP Main Event were held downtown at what is now the MTR-operated "Binion's" in celebration of the centennial of the founding of Las Vegas.

Mike Matusow won the first prize of $1 million (US), and all the players at the final table were guaranteed a minimum of $25,000 for the eighth and ninth-place finishers.

The main event, a £10,000 buy-in no-limit hold 'em tournament, was won by Norwegian online prodigy Annette Obrestad on the day before her 19th birthday.

The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts.

The victor receives a multi-million dollar cash prize and a bracelet, which has become the most coveted award a poker player can win.

In recent years, there have been non-bracelet events at the WSOP; two of the most notable are the "World Series of Rock Paper Scissors" and "Ante Up for Africa."

Like most tournaments, the sponsoring casino takes an entry fee (a percentage between 6% and 10%, depending on the buy-in) and distributes the rest, hence the prize money increasing with more players.

[48][49] On June 2, 2011, the World Series of Poker and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté announced plans for an officially sanctioned special fundraising event, known as The Big One for One Drop, starting on July 1, 2012, with a record US$1 million entry fee.

[50] 11% of the money (more precisely, $111,111 from each buy-in) went to Laliberté's charity, the One Drop Foundation, and the WSOP waived its normal 10% rake of the entry fees.

[51] Among those who committed early to the event were Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel, Tom Dwan, Laliberté, billionaire businessman Phil Ruffin and Erik Seidel.

On April 12, 2012, the WSOP announced that 30 players had committed to the tournament, which brought the first prize to $12.3 million, exceeding the record amount won by Jamie Gold.

Winners of the event not only get the largest prize of the tournament and a gold bracelet, but additionally their picture is placed in the Gallery of Champions at Binion's.

to an "8-game" format, adding no-limit hold 'em, pot-limit Omaha, and 2–7 triple draw to the mix, and was rechristened The Poker Players Championship,[62][63] with Michael Mizrachi winning the first edition of the revamped event.

[65] There have been many memorable moments during the main events, including Jack Straus's 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament.

Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, the winners in 2003 and 2004, both qualified for the main event through satellite tournaments at the PokerStars online card room.

With the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 online poker sites have been barred from purchasing entrance directly for their users.

The 2011 WSOP Player of the Year organized by Bluff Magazine used a different scoring system which took into account field sizes and buy-in amounts when calculating points earned.

[118] In the 2007 World Series of Poker, Maria Ho was the last woman remaining in the Championship Event, placing 38th out of 6,358 players and earning a $237,865 payday.

Her 27th place "Last Woman Standing" finish at the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event along with a 2017 6th place final table finish makes Maria the only player to ever hold the title Last Woman Standing four times over and at both the WSOP and WSOPE Main Events.

The earliest filming of the World Series was a special produced by Binion's Horseshoe in 1973 and narrated by Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder.

These hour-long programs presented more of an overview or recap of the WSOP as opposed to broadcasting an actual live event with play-by-play analysis and color commentary.

[131] Maranz previously worked on ESPN's football pre-game show, and has also produced taped segments for NBC's Olympic coverage.

[132][133] ESPN has expanded poker to all-new levels, especially with their coverage of the 2006 WSOP, including providing the entire final table of the 2006 Main Event via pay-per-view airing.

The ESPN family of networks aired 36 hours of Main Event coverage leading up to the November Nine on a 30-minute delay, showing the hole cards of all players who voluntarily entered the pot once the hand ended.

Starting in 2021, CBS Sports Network became the official television home of the World Series of Poker through a multi-year deal reached with PokerGO.

[142] In an interview for Card Player Magazine, PokerGO President Mori Eskandani mentioned longtime WSOP broadcasters Lon McEachern and Norman Chad would be back in the booth, along with Ali Nejad, David Tuchman, and Jeff Platt.

[188] Besides the hosting casino and ESPN,[189] major sponsors have included Jack Links Beef Jerky,[190] Miller Brewing's "Milwaukee's Best" brand of beers,[191] Pepsi's SoBe Adrenaline Rush energy drink (sponsors of the 2005 Tournament of Champions),[192] Helene Curtis's Degree brand of anti-perspirant/deodorant,[193] United States Playing Card's Bicycle Pro Cards, Bluff Magazine, GlaxoSmithKline/Bayer's Levitra erectile dysfunction medicine, and The Hershey Company.

[194] Licensees include Glu Mobile,[195] Activision[196] (video games for different platforms such as Nintendo's GameCube, Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation 2, and PC, featuring computer-generated versions of stars like Chris Ferguson), and products made by different companies ranging from chip sets, playing cards, hand-held games, and clothing like caps and shirts.