blonde - DtD Update

[tikay]

During the next 12 hours or so, you will see a whole raft of changes to the blonde Site - predominantly the Forum, to reflect DtD's sponsorship of various areas of blonde.

Discussions to implement this began last Spring, when agreement in principle was reached between Rob & myself.

It was always going to be the case that when the 425 Sponsorship deal ended, as expected, at the end of 2006, DtD & blonde would get it together. We belong together, we just do, and in Rob & myself, not to mention our respective Teams, we have a love & enthusiasm for poker that produces an irresistible momentum. Both Rob &  have invested heavily in our seperate ventures, and I could not be more pleased that we are now Partners. The blondes have, from the outset, shown a great warmth to Rob & Co, & Rob has been wholly supportive of us too.

Nevertheless, it was still a pleasant surprise to me that Rob decided to back blonde as heavily as in fact he has.

Feel free to ask away if you have questions, but broadly, the deal is as follows.....

DtD will, predominantly support 3 areas of blonde, being.....

The Forum, for which DtD will pay a monthly retainer, in return for Badging Sponsorship, "blondepoker, sponsored by DtD". We will create two or three new Boards specifically for DtD, "DtD Live", "DtD Online", & "DtD General". blonde will moderate these in the normal manner. These will, in effect, serve as DtD's Forum.

BPL, for which DtD will provide financial & Marketing support.

Live Updates, for which DtD will pay for travel, hotel & expenses for two blonde Updaters to all 9 DtD Tour Events. (7 x EPT's, Paris WPT, & WSOP Main Event). They will be "normal" blonde Live Updates, & Jen's Team will retain 100% editorial control, but we will make a special effort to follow, & report upon, Chip Counts etc for all the DtD Cew & DtD Online Qualifiers. The updates will be DtD Badged. There will be a link from DtD's site to the Live Updates, too.

Part of this arrangement gives blonde exclusive rights to run Live Updates on any or all events at DtD's Nottingham CardRoom.

DtD will also track all sign-ups who come via blonde, & whether they arrive via the Banners or not, blonde will benefit financially.

The deal is complex & many-faceted, but that's about the size of it, though there are numerous other bits & pieces involved. As I said, if you have questions, fire away.

DtD have paid a very full price for this deal, & we intend to give them excellent value, so that when the time comes to renew the deal - December 2007 - both Parties will want to continue the arrangement. We both want partners for life, not for 12 months.

A marriage made in Heaven, I'd say.

[RED-DOG]

You may kiss the bride.

[tikay]

There is a curious & really quite wonderful (for me) postscript to the blonde DtD deal. I'll tell it exactly how it happened,as I feel I must, as I like to be wholly honest in these matters.

Rob & I go back way before blonde or DtD were ever thought of, & there is a natural empathy between us. We rub along a treat, but don't live in each others pockets.

The deal was something blonde clearly strived for, but the details were put together by Rob, who spent a great deal of time fine-tuning them.

Eventually, it was all drafted out, and Rob & I met at his boozer, The Broxtowe Arms, to agree the final details. No Contract was drafted, we just shook hands, & that was that. The papers were put away, Rob ordered a coffee, me a tea, & we chilled for half an hour, and then I got up to go, pretty pleased with the way things had turned out.

We shook hands, & I turned to go. Rob then said, "oh, one more thing, but this is personal, nothing to do with DtD. I'm entering you in all the 2007 DtD Tour Events - the EPT's, the WPT Paris & the WSOP Main Event".

Now, can you imagine someone saying that to you? "Sorry Rob, what did you say?" I asked. He repeated it, & explained his thinking, which I'm not gonna repeat here, because it's personal, & private really. I said no more, I was a bit non-plussed. I just mumbled "thanks" & sidled away, a little embarrassed truth to tell.

The next day, I wrote to him. "Did you REALLY mean that Rob" I asked. Yes, he replied, & he set it out in detail, to avoid any misunderstanding. I rung him, "Rob, I'm truly grateful, but I can't accept, it's just not right". We chatted about it for  a while, & eventully struck a deal. He'd personally pay for my entry in all the DtD Tour Events, in return for which he'd get 50% of anything I won. To ensure there were no allegations of me doing a deal for blonde just so that I'd personally benefit, I have decided that the other 50% - "my" 50% - will go to blondepoker.

So far, I'm pleased to say, Rob has not lost a button - Copenhagen was full, Deauville cancelled, & Dortmund is sold out I'm told! So if we carry on like this, he may get away without losing a penny. Who'd have thought that?!

I'm blessed, I tell ya, blessed.

[tikay]

You may kiss the bride.

No chance - it might turn out to be Chubbs. He's a sloppy kisser.

[RED-DOG]

You may kiss the bride.

No chance - it might turn out to be Chubbs. He's a sloppy kisser.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I know. 

[The Dundonian]

Fantastic news for the poker scene in the UK and Europe, although I have not met either of you I still think this is a marriage made in heaven!
Class acts both!

[77dave]

All sounds amazing  hats off to all involved and im sure this will become a long long term deal

one question i had is will there will any blonde links on the dtd site or in  the club .with all the players around the world that dtd are trying to attract to there online site and club it would be good if we could get them to sign as blondes as well.

[Dewi_cool]

During the next 12 hours or so, you will see a whole raft of changes to the blonde Site - predominantly the Forum, to reflect DtD's sponsorship of various areas of blonde.

Discussions to implement this began last Spring, when agreement in principle was reached between Rob & myself.

It was always going to be the case that when the 425 Sponsorship deal ended, as expected, at the end of 2006, DtD & blonde would get it together. We belong together, we just do, and in Rob & myself, not to mention our respective Teams, we have a love & enthusiasm for poker that produces an irresistible momentum. Both Rob &  have invested heavily in our seperate ventures, and I could not be more pleased that we are now Partners. The blondes have, from the outset, shown a great warmth to Rob & Co, & Rob has been wholly supportive of us too.

Nevertheless, it was still a pleasant surprise to me that Rob decided to back blonde as heavily as in fact he has.

Feel free to ask away if you have questions, but broadly, the deal is as follows.....

DtD will, predominantly support 3 areas of blonde, being.....

The Forum, for which DtD will pay a monthly retainer, in return for Badging Sponsorship, "blondepoker, sponsored by DtD". We will create two or three new Boards specifically for DtD, "DtD Live", "DtD Online", & "DtD General". blonde will moderate these in the normal manner. These will, in effect, serve as DtD's Forum.

BPL, for which DtD will provide financial & Marketing support.

Live Updates, for which DtD will pay for travel, hotel & expenses for two blonde Updaters to all 9 DtD Tour Events. (7 x EPT's, Paris WPT, & WSOP Main Event). They will be "normal" blonde Live Updates, & Jen's Team will retain 100% editorial control, but we will make a special effort to follow, & report upon, Chip Counts etc for all the DtD Cew & DtD Online Qualifiers. The updates will be DtD Badged. There will be a link from DtD's site to the Live Updates, too.

Part of this arrangement gives blonde exclusive rights to run Live Updates on any or all events at DtD's Nottingham CardRoom.

DtD will also track all sign-ups who come via blonde, & whether they arrive via the Banners or not, blonde will benefit financially.

The deal is complex & many-faceted, but that's about the size of it, though there are numerous other bits & pieces involved. As I said, if you have questions, fire away.

DtD have paid a very full price for this deal, & we intend to give them excellent value, so that when the time comes to renew the deal - December 2007 - both Parties will want to continue the arrangement. We both want partners for life, not for 12 months.

A marriage made in Heaven, I'd say.

I had a shiver go through me reading this, so it must be good, ARBENNIG

[Tonji]

all good, nothing bad.....an exciting year ahead, all the best to DTD & Blonde

[ripple11]

 Buisiness made through TRUST and a handshake. .......fantastic news for both parties.



....oh and some more dead money in the years big events....perfect
 

[boldie]

Very nicely done guys..(Both Rob and Tikay). this is the way business is supposed to be done. A handshake should be good enough. and like tha man said " a marriage made in heaven"

[robyong]

As I said in my diary, BP have helped PR DTD within all sectors of the community, DTD owes BP for that, lol, even our competitors and the Gambling Commission read my blog on here!

I chose to sponsor BP for both sentimental and commercial reasons, its sort of been the only forum that a lot of us have used, and I expect DTD to bring much to the forum, especially a lot of poker pros posting here or a regular basis. It will take a few weeks for me to get this organised, the structrure of the DTD forum etc, so please bear with me.

As TK said we just did it on a handshake, I've done most of my deals like this, no matter how big. Poker can be a different than normal business though (lost more people trying to shaft you etc) so its nice when things can be done like this, cause believe me, 90% if the people involved in the poker business are totally out for themselves. A lot of things are changing in DTD already, i'm sorry I can't always keep people updated, but it changes from day to day, hopefully having a DTD forum here will improve the communication channels, and I'm sure BP will get plenty more members which means we can fill DTD at a Blondebash in 2007..hopefully

The point about DTD and BP having card rooms seems to be not really an issue, DTD is a big huge costly animal, and needs to be successful accross europe, never mind the UK, so I think we are different markets and won't really compete that much. I hope that people still play on BP but choose to play on DTD in preference to the other sites they play..........you know that the money is going to the right place

Anyway, I'm glad that you can all see that both me and TK are doing everything we can for the BP membership, and the friendship has continued, proving that what we say - we do. Thanks for all your support, i'm turning the corner on a lot of issues that have been stressing me out (licencing etc) and hope to on top of things very soon, and BP have done a quick and effiencient job on bannering the forum etc

Now, lets hope I can pay the BlondePoker billl each month   

Cheers everyone, Rob

[NoflopsHomer]

Rob can you sort out the Crypto software bug that allows KQ to always win against any Ax hand?

Cheers.

[Newmanseye]

Great news guys and I must say its great to see that some people still work with gentlemans agreements in thus cynical work, Kudos to both Rob and Tikay.

[Acidmouse]

It's excellent news that Blonde forums will be supported by a company that so many people have a interest and enthusiasm in.

I am just glad the forums will be here