PokerStars' seventh Southern Europe Championship of Online Poker
2 October 2025(PRESS RELEASE) -- The 2025 edition of the Southern Europe Championship of Online Poker demonstrated yet again that it is the premier tournament series for online poker players in France, Spain and Portugal, as the seventh edition of the series wrapped up with a massive $11,033,678 prize pool, beating its $10 million guarantee by more than 10%. Over three weeks of action, 28,643 unique entries contested the 261 events, with the overall series attracting 389,228 total entries.
The €400,000 guaranteed Main Event saw 2,046 entries which made for a prize pool of €475,695 and was won by PokerStars Ambassador Alex ‘and1ero’ Romero of Spain for €25,788.07. He also won €11,368.60 in bounties to walk away with an overall prize of €37,156.67, the third biggest payout of his career.
“It was a dream tournament from start to finish”, said Romero. “Everything went smoothly over the three days. Winning the Main Event of one of the most important series of the year and being able to stream the entire event was something very special.”
PORTUGAL: SMALL BUT MIGHTY
Spain may have taken the individual Main Event title, but Portugal demonstrated the strength of their 4,322 unique players, finishing as the undisputed country title winner, topping the Country of the Series leaderboard with 200,345,620 points, clear water between it and second placed Spain, whose 11,326 unique entries amassed 173,012,836 points. France completed the podium with 128,567,991 points from its 9,323 players. All Portuguese players were entered into a €20,000 freeroll that also awarded 400 seats to the Monster 50 tournament on October 12, with €300,000 GTD. Portuguese players secured 48 wins across the series in total, compared to France’s 40, Spain’s 59 and Brazil’s 50. The players with the most series wins were FreeAgenTT (from Portugal) and easyyyy___1 (from France) with three each.
“We’re thrilled at the success of SECOOP and how many players battled at the online tables for a coveted SECOOP title”, said Sandro Forleo, Head of Poker Operations for Southern Europe and Italy at PokerStars. “The appetite and enthusiasm for online poker in our Southern European playing communities is legendary and we can’t wait to bring more exciting series and tournaments for the remainder of the year.”