The marketing side of poker is big business with the top players paid to wear branded logos for poker rooms. At tournaments like the World Series of Poker, representatives for the biggest poker rooms offer large sums for players to wear their badges. It was reported that Darvin Moon, the second place finisher in the 2009 WSOP main event, declined all offers for sponsorship and was apparently offered $500,000 by a poker room in a last ditch attempt to have him wear their brand for the live final table. Amazingly, Darvin declined the offer.
Are these types of sponsorships worth it? Many poker sites send players to large events and stipulate the players wear their branded T shirt and caps as part of the deal. They hope the players get on television but this may not happen and they may bust out early in the tournament. The site hopes that the player wins their seat through their site and goes on to earn a big score from the event. Other players then follow suit hoping for a similar outcome. Chris Moneymaker won his seat to the 2003 World Series of Poker through winning a series of satellites into the event. His total investment was said to be $40 to win $2.5 million. Pokerstars did very well in subsequent years sending hundreds of players to the event.
Competition is high for the poker rooms and many rooms sign up players to long term deals. Annette Obrestad works with Betfair who pays her buy-ins to large tournaments all around the world. You question whether this is value for money. Annette does get a lot of exposure but it is she that gets the exposure not the site she represents. Of course their badge is on display if she gets on television, but there is no verbal discussion of Betfair when the TV watches Annette. The site hopes people notice the badge, like Annette’s play, and visits the site she recommends by the logo she is wearing.
The problem for the poker rooms is that every site sponsors players and it is costing a lot of money to keep up. There is a trend towards sites rewarding their high raking regular players with live sponsorship deals to go to live events, thus holding onto their custom. It also shows other players that increasing their play with the site could be very beneficial to them.
James Akenhead signed up as a Full Tilt Red Pro after making the final table of the World Series of Poker and went on to play in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event and win the Poker Million. He appeared in many magazines and interviews as a result of his achievements in 2009. In every picture or TV segment he was wearing the badge of Full Tilt. Whatever they paid/pay James for him to wear their logos paid off. There are, however, many Red Pros who are staked into events and earning great rakeback that you wonder whether they are value for that investment.
Poker rooms also run the risk that the player may get into trouble. If an incident occurs like Scotty Nguyen in the 2008 HORSE event at the WSOP then the poker rooms would not enjoy being associated with it. The motivation of the players for sponsorship is also a worry for the sites. Many of them are just looking for a way to be a poker professional, live comfortably and play in large events. A proportion of them will care about the site and how they represent it, but most would sign up with whoever offered them the deal. Darvin Moon should be praised for his refusal to sign up as a sponsored player. Why? Because he said he never played online poker and to wear a badge would mislead the public who did not know he was a live only player.
A great way to represent a poker room is to win a satellite and be sent to a large poker event. Bwin sent many players to the Aussie Millions and their players are genuinely representing the site and their progress can be followed by reading the bwin poker blog.
By Malcolm Clarke