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Since Black Friday I have been constantly asked if the bubble has burst on poker player sponsorships and I?ve lost count of the times I?ve been told it has already done so. When these equivocal experts embroil me in these conversations I am tempted to find out what they actually do for a living, fabricate an impending reason why there is no demand for this product or service and then pompously decree that they should probably just give up and look at other forms of employment. The goalposts may have changed but the player sponsorship model still works due to the ever-constant axiom that brands will continue to want to associate the best players with their business.
It should be said that some of the smaller poker agents have actually already admitted defeat and were simply not scaled or positioned sufficiently to endure the downswing that was perhaps inevitable after recent years of rampant growth in player sponsorships. But Poker Royalty is different. Poker Royalty created the poker agent industry when Brian Balsbaugh signed Daniel Negreanu as his first client in 2003 and since then we have been involved in thousands of deals. When people outside the industry ask me what I do for a living I tell them I work for a company that represent the equivalents of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney in the poker world. Sites want to associate themselves with the best poker players as a way of attracting spending customers to their brand.
The aspirational driven marketing model still works but post Black Friday it's not enough to simply replicate the multi-level sponsorship of PokerStars & Full Tilt. The poker players, sites and agents all have to work harder and get more creative. There is no doubt that many sponsored pros had it easier pre- Black Friday but even before then Poker Royalty had detected a noticeable shift in the demands from the site in that they were looking for their pros to deliver more bang for their buck. I am constantly talking to my unsigned clients and telling them they need to make themselves more alluring to the prospective site by engaging in social media activities most importantly blogging and Twitter which is tailor made for the poker industry. At the same time we work with our employed clients on ways they can add value to their site.
Horses for courses
Poker Royalty certainly does not advocate that every site should sponsor a pro. It isn?t viable. And while providing poker players for sponsorship and endorsement opportunities is at the core of our business, we have positioned ourselves as expert consultants in the industry and are fortunate enough to work with other companies in the business that are adverse to the aspirational driven poker model. One concern we hear regularly is potential new players will be put off depositing funds for fear that their money will quickly be won by the team of sponsored pros and they would rather build their team from their own player database installing a sense of community and site loyalty.
There is a definite case for this community based strategy and one site that has done it better than most is PKR. They have a loyal customer base and have a successful history with their PKR Social and Live events. However they recognised the importance of having some sort of professional team and recruited from within. This worked in some capacity but there was no awareness of the team outside of the PKR community. To rectify that they employed the services of triple crown winner Jake Cody and immediately they have instant credibility in the wider poker community and increased opportunities for brand exposure.
The instant recognition a figurehead like Jake Cody can bring to a site should not be underestimated. In the kaleidoscopic nature of the European poker market, online sites are looking to get a foothold with consumers the quickest way possible. While building a team and social platform for the player database may be a long-term goal, what the big name sponsored pro delivers, if managed correctly, is immediate brand exposure and instant confidence in the site. Online sites who have their eye on emerging or regulated markets recognise this and therefore it represents an opportunity for players who are in the right place at the right time. A good example of this is that in January the Belgium Gaming Commission approved selected sites for real-money online poker. I contacted a leading Belgian player on Monday and by the end of the week he had a deal.
If this was a few years ago the player could probably now relax a bit and enjoy his sponsorship without delivering too much in return. In 2012 though it?s a different story and if he wants to continue his association with the site he will not only be expected to promote his new site but most likely his performance and deliverables may even be measured. Similarly, when Poker Royalty signed November Niner Sam Holden into a deal with 888 the site enjoyed a lot of publicity and national brand exposure. Pre-Black Friday the shelf life of a November Niner would be a good for a couple of years without the player having to work too hard on the site?s behalf, but now there are no free rides and the smart players like Sam are doing all they can for their employers.
Breaking the mould
Bodog are another site not interested in following the model of PokerStars of Full Tilt and are looking for something a little bit different. We introduced them to our client Tatjana Pasalic. Tatjana is a perfect example for sponsored pros on how to give added value to their site. Tatjana is very well known in the poker community and is fantastic at generating PR for Bodog and promoting their initiatives through her expert use of social media. In January ,she travelled to WPT Dublin, methodically dovetailed all print and radio media opportunities and the result for Bodog was a picture of her with logo in a national newspaper.
Tatjana will also travel to poker events and actively circulate with the travelling Bodog community, calculating the best way to enhance the community feel and maximise the live experience for the qualifiers. This could be through social get-togethers or something as simple as organising a team photograph. Recently at the Punta Cana Poker Classic she voluntarily railed a qualifier for ten hours at the final table. Although Tatjana is not hired to be a sponsored poker player for Bodog she actually represents how the concept of a sponsored player has changed and how they can be better utilised going forward.
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