The Unibet Open is back, and the lineup at the rail is going to look different. After a long hiatus, the live festival returns May 16 to 25, 2026, at the Partouche Casino Club in central Paris, with a EUR1,100 Main Event running alongside the Unibet DeepStack Open at the same venue. It is the first Unibet Open festival in nearly a decade without David "KingDavid888" Lappin and Dara "doke" O'Kearney as on-screen ambassadors.
Unibet ended its 8.5-year sponsorship of The Chip Race podcast and its two Irish hosts on June 1, 2025, with the operator scaling back ambassador spend across the brand. Lappin and O'Kearney had been the longest-running creator partnership Unibet had ever had. The podcast launched on the brand in late 2017 and ran weekly through the entire previous era of the live tour. You can see the new live schedule and qualifier ladder on the Unibet Open site directly.
Their absence is the structural change to watch in Paris. Unibet has not yet announced a fresh ambassador roster for the new tour, and the brand's 2026 communications have focused on the festival schedule and qualifier ladder rather than on individual pros. The Unibet Open ambassadors page on Unibet Open's own site has not been updated since 2023.
Festival schedule highlights: the Main Event runs four Day 1 flights from May 21 to 24 with a EUR1,000 plus EUR100 buy-in, 50,000 starting stack, 60-minute levels, and four Day 2 restarts feeding a single Final Day on May 25. A EUR2,000 plus EUR200 High Roller runs alongside on May 23 to 24, plus a Mini Unibet Open at EUR550 and a separate EUR400 Pot-Limit Omaha.
Online qualifier route: Pokergods is running an exclusive Poker Influencers Road to Paris satellite ladder for UK and Irish players. The main satellite is on Sunday, May 3 at 19:30 GMT with a EUR50 buy-in and two re-entries, and a guaranteed EUR1,500 Unibet Open Paris package. That is the EUR1,100 Main Event seat plus EUR400 in expenses credited directly to the player's account.
A EUR5 sub-satellite on Wednesday, April 29 at 19:05 feeds the EUR50 main with 10 EUR50 tickets guaranteed. The password for both is Road2Paris. New Unibet sign-ups via Pokergods can also claim one of 20 free EUR5 tickets to the Wednesday sub-satellite, valid for that single tournament only.
Unibet's UK licence means UK players can register both the satellites and the live festival directly through their Unibet Poker accounts. The UDSO running in parallel adds depth: a EUR550 Unibet DeepStack Open Main Event with multiple Day 1 flights from May 17, plus EUR300 Mystery Cup, EUR650 Superstack, and a EUR250 Nightly running each evening.
What we are watching at this stop: whether the Unibet Open is large enough at relaunch to support a fresh ambassador signing, and whether O'Kearney, one of the most respected tournament players in Ireland on Hendon Mob with over $1.4 million in cashes, shows up in Paris to play the field as a free agent. Lappin under PokerStars colours travels well too. The 2026 series is already a guarantee to see both at the rail and at the felt; whether either ends up back on the broadcast booth is the open question.
Festival venue: Partouche Casino Club, 10 Avenue de la Grande Armee, 75017 Paris. Buy-ins quoted in euros. UDSO Paris runs at Club Circus, 37 Boulevard Murat, 75016 Paris from May 14 to 25. To register, sign in to your account or join Unibet Poker here. Always gamble responsibly. For help, visit BeGambleAware.