PokerStars has been toasting success, after it’s Galactic Series concluded as “the Southern European shared liquidity market’s biggest ever online poker tournament series”.

A total prize pool of €16.97m was almost a €2m increase of the €15m guarantee stipulated, as a grand total of 50,612 players hit the virtual felt during the 186 event schedule.

Running from August 26 – September 13, making the Galactic Series “the longest ever held in the Southern Europe shared liquidity market,” it also featured the biggest single event guarantee in the shared liquidity market at €1.5m.

The main event received a grand total of 6,430 entries, with French players enjoying the most success with five representatives making it to the final table, four of which occupied the top four spots.

It was a theme that was characterised across the whole series with players from France winning the most events with 42 in total, ahead of Spain who came home with 30 and Portugal on 20.

“Sharing liquidity among these three markets continues to allow us to offer our players the most attractive tournaments with the biggest guarantees,” said Severin Rasset, director of poker innovation and operations at The Stars Group. “We are thankful that our players supported us, especially for the main event, which saw incredible attendance figures. See you soon for the next series!”

Revealing further details of the successes of the Galactic Series, PokerStars stated in a media release that “outside of the main event, key tournament highlights included the Sunday Special on 2 September, which surpassed its €350,000 guarantee by more than €20,000, and the Super Thursday on 13 September, which exceeded its €150,000 guarantee by almost €100,000.

“The €10 buy-in Classico events proved to be very popular as well, with an average of 15,000 entries across three Sundays.”