I agree with you that Nik is an excellent player - he's been knocking at the door for quite a while and it surely won't be long before it stays ajar long enough to let him get past the threshold. However, on the issue of sponsorship - and really this is not about Nik, but about the whole sponsorship thing in general. There is far too much expectation amongst players to be sponsored. In a few years time sponsorships will be a thing of the past - not enough value for sponsors, it costs too much, too little return and marketing money can be better spent in other ways.
Pokerstars have their team of players, largely designed to ensure they have a presenece within the poker communities of as many countries as possible.
Full Tilt have lots of big names and this strategy was designed in part to give them some cut through in their ad campaigns, given that they were relatively late to market, compared with the other big sites.
Betfair, Blue Square, Ladbrokes,
William Hill and other companies also have sponsorship programs, to varying degrees. I was largely responsible for getting the Blue Square one off the ground and our current sponsored players are
Mickey Wernick,
Praz Bansi,
Karl Mahrenholz and
Kevin O'Leary.
However, if the clock were tunred back three years I probably would not set it up again. This is not because the program has been disappointing - far from it - all of our players have enabled Blue Square to have constant exposure in the poker press over the last few years and this has been good for the company, however, the poker press is a tiny market place and sponsoring players has little impact on getting coverage in the wider press. The only sponsorsships that are going to fulfill this goal are sponsorships of celebrity poker players - e.g Shane Warn for 888 and Boris Becker for Poker stars.
I can't see many more sposnorships for people other than celebrities or high rakers in the future. Perhaps from new sites, but only for a limited time period until they establish themsleves and start to look at the bigger picture. Some companies will use the ego boost associated with sponsorship to give back to their high rakers, but this is really rakeback in disguise.
Every week we get approached by lots and lots of players wishing to be sponsored. They usually point solely to their prowess as players as the reason they should be sponsored. That is simply not enough. There are lots of good players who are not sponsored, because being good at the game is a secondary reason to sponsor someone. Their ability to gain press interest is the number one reason and the publicity they garner has to be considered to be positve.
I received an email ast week from a 17-year old who wants to be sponsored to play at the Vic at next week's GUKPT, just a few days after his 18th birthday. He thinks this would be great publicity, but it would not be. I think that players playing in major events as soon as they become old enough to do so is bad for the industry and certainly not something for a sponsor to harp on about. It only goes to highlight that those players MUST have been playing online illegaly when they were underage to be able to step up to that size of game as soon as they come of age.
I think Betfair's sponsorship of Annette_15 is ill advised. She may well be the hottest name in poker at the moment, but she had been playing online since she was 15. 15 for gods sake. How can this be anything other than bad for the industry in general - highlighting the illegal use of online poker sites by a minor and the innaction of the sites she played on by not stopping here from doing so. The recent announcement of
Sorel Mizzi's sponsorship by Betfair is also rather baffling. Whether you believe what he did was wrong or not, it is strange that Betfair wish to applaud him for his actions by awarding him with a sponsorship deal.
Every time I attend a poker festival, someone bangs their chest and says 'when are you gonna sponsor me', usually just after they've won something. I smile grimly and laugh it off.
My advice to players is forget about being sponsored. It probably isn't going to happen. Control your egos enough to realise that very few people care if you've made 6 final tables in the last 2 months, least of all potential sponsors. It is even worse when players get moody about not being offered sponsorship deals, expecting that it is their god given right to be sponsored. Petulance is an ugly trait and not one that is going to endear you to a potential sponsor.
There are players out there who I think are deserving of their sponsorship deals, but even the best of these realise they were in the right place at the right time. IMO sponsorship of players is on the way out. Those of you who are sponsored, enjoy it while you can. The big cheeses have woken up, they can smell the coffee and their cheque books should be firmly in their pockets. Nobody is chomping at the bit to 'snap' up players.
"Do not ask for to be sponsored, as a refusal often offends."
An intresting post Jon and a lot of home truths with which I agree but ....
Be careful not to shoot yourself in the foot.
Without sponsored players a lot of the festivals and tours such as the GUKPT will lose a large number of entrant`s.
A lot of aspiring pro`s use the chance of sponsorship as an extra incentive to enter and, do well in, the above mentioned events hoping to attract attention for their efforts from the major poker sites. Take away that dream and again... numbers will drop.
Years ago most aspiring pro`s travelled to play the events in the USA. take away sponsorship for players in this country and you may well find more players willing to take that chance once again and, this too will cause a drop in numbers at UK festivals
And whilst your comments are intelligent and well meant, remember one Gerald Ratner?...He too was to honest for his own good.
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