Spragg Juggles Online Grind, Content Creation, and SCOOP League
With the 2025 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) Main Events get underway tonight on PokerStars, Ambassador Benjamin Spragg is right where he wants to be – deep in the grind, with streams running, fans watching, and high hopes for a long-awaited title.
“It’s been good to hit the ground running,” Spragg says, having spent the lead-up to SCOOP preparing, drafting his team for the SCOOP League, and warming up at EPT Monte Carlo. “The hard work is the prep. Once you’re in the middle, you’re just in grind mode.”
That grind, of course, is relentless. With three to four weeks of back-to-back online tournaments and a SCOOP League team to captain, Spragg’s calendar is packed. But he’s not complaining. His recent trip to EPT Monte Carlo gave him a mental reset before the online intensity began in full.
“It was nice to get away from the screen a bit before jumping in,” he says. “Still poker, still staying sharp, but a change of pace.”
Unlike his competitors who’ve been burrowed away planning, studying and running simulations for weeks in anticipation of SCOOP, Spragg embraces a more balanced approach.
“I’m probably at a bit of a competitive disadvantage,” he admits, “but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. The stream gives me so much, the YouTube stuff as well.
“And ambassador stuff — it’s more than a reasonable trade-off if it means I can’t be competing quite at the tip-top of my game. I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.”
That mix of performance and personality is what makes Spragg stand out. But with that comes more responsibility, particularly as one of the SCOOP League captains. As team captain Spragg doesn’t have the luxury of putting the League to one side and focusing entirely on online success.
“There’s an added spectre,” he says. “So we’ll be keeping an eye on that. Obviously it kind of plays itself – you earn points just by playing SCOOP, so there’s no extra work in that sense. Potentially losing to Fintan, Parker, Kelvin… there’s some additional mental bandwidth.”
Spragg is especially intrigued by Brazilian captain Kelvin Kerber this year. Previously drafted by Spragg, Kerber now leads a team of his own that no doubt will attract the attention and passion of his compatriots.
“Brazilian poker fans bring a lot of passion, and it’s fun there’s a Brazilian captain and a Brazilian team involved,” he says. “It’s fun to have that dynamic. He’s a bit of an unknown quantity in terms of how he’s going to shit-talk and wind us up, but it adds spice.”
So far, the mental bandwidth and SCOOP League stress has been reduced owing to the fact that Spragg has held the lead from Day 3 of the festival. But winning the SCOOP League means nothing. Above all, Spragg wants what has eluded him so far: a SCOOP title.
“I’ve been screwed out of a couple. And by that I mean I lost heads-up,” he laughs. “Hopefully this year is my year.” He plans to play as many events as he can, including some mixed games, where he’s had surprising success in past series.
His goals? Simple but tough: “SCOOP title, make some money, don’t lose too hard.” Then he shrugs, as only Spragg can: “Turn up, do your best, hope for the best.”
Will Shillibier
Managing Editor