About this app
How to play Royal Chip
As of today, submissions for the 2026 iGB’s Most Influential Women list are open! We are once again looking for nominations that highlight all facets of the sector, and the women who are championing change and acting as leading forces within their company, or the sector more broadly.
Please provide as much detail and insight as possible on the person/s you are nominating. The more information and background we receive, the clearer the picture of their career and achievements can be.
While it’s tempting to use AI to help you write a submit, we please ask that you avoid doing so, as once again, the more personal an entry is, the better we can judge it across our key criteria.
What is Royal Chip?
Kesitilwe told iGB an important theme of the event was fostering year-round collaboration and turning conversations on safer gambling into practical measures.
“The initiative demonstrates that cooperation does not have to remain at the level of conference and policy discussion,” he said.
“It has to translate into practical action, educating players, engaging communities, protecting young people and highlighting the dangers of illegal and unlicensed gambling.”
About Royal Chip
The action will kick off with New Zealand’s David Yan in the lead, sitting as he does with 5.3 million chips, a good chunk more than his closest challengers Yuri Dzivielvski (3 million) and Niklas Astedt (2.6 million). Of those two, it is perhaps the Swede Astedt who will fancy their chances more than anyone, desperate to seal the deal having accumulated almost $2 million in winnings in the tournament series but never having closed one out to take the outright win.
Elsewhere, there are some superstars of the game who are taking their places lined up behind the leaders in pursuit of poker profit. Canadian poker legend Sam Greenwood comes into the final a little short-stack with 1.9 million chips, but he’s immediately followed by another luminary of the game in Mikita Badziakowski. The Belarussian only has 1.4 million but will be doing everything he can to get over the line. The final table betting prices are slightly different to the order in which the players find themselves in the chipcounts:
As you can see, David Yan has enjoyed the most money being places on him and goes into play as the 4.12 odds favourite. He may have the most money placed on him, but almost double the number of bettors rate the Swedish pro Astedt as a good shot to see out the win for the first time. Sam Greenwood is tempting plenty of punters at odds of 10 and 103 people have invested in the Canadian to upset the chipcounts.