The first European Poker Tour event ever was held in Barcelona, Spain in 2004 and has always been linked to PokerStars, first as sponsor, later as proprietor. The EPT was the most prestigious tour in Europe and still has claims to be at the top of the tree, however the brief 1-year replacement of the tour with an alternative brand harmed its reputation and as a result, the EPT now faces stiffer competition, with both the WPT and WSOP increasing their activity in Europe in recent years. 

Nevertheless, the EPT still runs the biggest events on the continent and does so in style, with many off-the felt activities at each stop. EPT Barcelona is the biggest €5k buy-in event in Europe and the popularity of the tour ensures that even without guarantees, most of the events keep growing in size year-on-year.

EPT Festivals typically last for 10-11 days and feature not just the €5k EPT Main Event, but also a €1k National Tour Main Event. PokerStars runs four national tours in Europe that each have 4-5 stops per year and every EPT festival starts with the national tour main event as its warm up act. The four national tours are:

The poker explosion of the early 2000s was led by the growth of online poker, which led to the creation and rapid expansion of live, televised tournaments across the globe, with shows like Late Night Poker, the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour finding new audiences in many countries.

The European Poker Tour has seen continued growth since its inception in 2004. The first European Poker Tour event ever was held in Barcelona, Spain in 2004. That tournament was won by Alexander Stevic. There were seven events in total during the inaugural season, which featured winners from the UK and Netherlands. The Grand Final was in Monte Carlo and was won by Dutch player Rob Hollink. He took home the trophy and a first prize of €635,000.

The second and third seasons saw the tour establish itself as the go-to events in Europe for all serious poker players, with large numbers of American players crossing the Atlantic for each stop. While season two had another seven events, the third saw it grow to eight. The Grand Final had a massive field (for the time) of 493 players. 

Season three also saw Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin win their first stops on their way to achieving poker’s first Triple Crowns. To earn the Poker Triple Crown you have to win the EPT, WPT, and WSOP Titles).

By season four internet players who had started to earn notoriety, and famous live players started to make sure they were at every European Poker Tour event. World-famous players like Mike McDonald, Jason Mercier, and Bertrand Grospellier all scored EPT wins in this season. 

Astonishingly, it took until season 10 until the first double winner of EPT main events occurred. History was finally made when Victoria Coren-Mitchell won her second final, becoming the first-ever two-time champion. She won her first event in season 3 at EPT London (also becoming the first-ever woman champion) and then won season 10’s EPT Sanremo.

The European Poker Tour continued to expand with first-time tournaments in Malta, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Russia, and more. The first teenage winner came in season 11, in the shape of Spain’s Adrian Mateos. 

By 2019 the EPT Barcelona Main Event had grown to a staggering 1,988 entries - almost as many entries as the inaugural EPT season attracted. It was won by Sweden's Simon Brandstrom for almost €1.3 million. Mikalai Pobal then became the second two-time winner of the EPT after defeating 1,154 players to win the EPT Prague Main Event.

In 2023, at EPT Monte Carlo, Canadian Michael Watson became the third two-time EPT main event winner. 

Canadians seem to do particularly well at the EPT and there are no less than four of them on the tour's all-time money list and five if you make it out of eleven. Sam Greenwood in third place overall is the highest ranked Canadian player on the list, followed by Michael Watson, Timothy Adams and Daniel Dvores, with Mike McDonald in 11th place.