The first (supposedly annual) WSOP Europe launches next month in London, as Harrah’s tries to expand the World Series of Poker brand even further.

With the current landscape of the poker world, Europe was an obvious choice for the next stop for the WSOP to try and set up shop. The United States may not have peaked in its poker potential, but the turnout of this year’s WSOP main event is clear proof that the American government’s crackdown on Internet gambling is causing people to be cautious.

Europeans and their governments have a much better view on gambling in general, and that makes it one of the top markets that any poker-related company has to go after. Since the European market (and lawmakers) are much more open to online poker, WSOP Europe and the online world will be much more welcome and free to attend than they were in Las Vegas a few months ago. The presence of online poker rooms means more money for everyone involved which, if it’s successful, will mean bigger and better things for WSOP Europe in the future.

The World Series of Poker makes the first stop outside of America next month when the WSOP Europe begins in London. The first WSOP bracelets available outside the U.S.A. are expected to be a hot-ticket item with a number of top poker pros already registered for the big £10,000 main event.

Some of the well-known pros already in line include WSOP bracelet record-holder Phil Hellmuth, legend Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer. As it should be, Europe will also be well represented with the Great Dane Gus Hansen, and EPT and WPT champion Roland de Wolfe already confirmed.

If the WSOP Europe main event resembles the recent WSOP main events, the pros will have to be on the lookout for an unknown en route to the bracelet. The main sponsors of the event, Betfair, have reserved 125 seats alone for online qualifiers.