Poker Media Mid Life Crisis

[relaedgc]

What is your opinion on the how the industry supports your capacity, in a live update sense?

Do you feel that the market leading companies are supportive of live updates, and value the impact that they have?

I ask because I've always personally felt that they're a very important part of a 'festival', but even more so now -because- of how saturated the poker industry is. It's an element that I don't feel many of the companies really invest or appreciate. Do you think more could/should be done?

[pleno1]

Did you know we've met?

We stood next to reach other a couple of years ago - maybe three - at the IPO. You were talking on the rail with George2Loose and I think we were railing differing people in the same table.

We probably exchanged half a dozen words. I went away saying "I just spoke to Barry Carter".

True story.

lol, know I didn't even really know who you were until the last 12 months or so.

That's the oddest thing about poker to me, meeting 'internet friends'. I get people come up to me saying

'hi barry',

I say 'hi, who are you?'

'james'

'james who?'

'wigglebiscuits1984 from blondepoker'

or some such

 

Lol journalists

[TightEnd]

What is your opinion on the how the industry supports your capacity, in a live update sense?

Do you feel that the market leading companies are supportive of live updates, and value the impact that they have?

I ask because I've always personally felt that they're a very important part of a 'festival', but even more so now -because- of how saturated the poker industry is. It's an element that I don't feel many of the companies really invest or appreciate. Do you think more could/should be done?

can I give my view George? (not sure why I am asking, I am going to)

(I am biased but) the amount of resource and attention many tours give to Live Updates has waned as the amount of resource and attention given to live streams has risen

This though under-estimates the impact of a good live update, particularly as a matter of record after the event

I think there is a place for both, particularly if the updates are interactive. If I have 20 minutes in the day to check through updates I can do so and ask about a friend who is playing (If the interactive live update is good every question will be answered in under 10 minutes or so) . If I as someone interested in an event spend that 20 minutes watching a live stream I just get to view that one table, perhaps some interviews at other tables if I am lucky, and don't get an overall sense of the competition that a live update can give. This is especially the case if, as often happens, the line up on the stream does not change for most of the day and you see the same faces, predominantly

I do think Live streams come into their own for the setpiece of a final table.

The PokerStarsblog does updates of UKIPTs with very high quality journalism. DTD sees the benefit of live updates and only streams for finals, usually. Community tours like APAT and Sky Poker still do them. Indeed Sky Poker has recently stopped streaming events and reverted to updates only. At the other end of the spectrum the EPT etc remain well supported by PokerNews updates

Yet looking at UK tours Genting stopped updates for the GPS I think and Grosvenor's within the GUKPT blog pages are so half hearted. I think that is a shame, particularly as funding the Live updates isn't very expensive in the context of funding a stream and the cost of putting on a festival overall.

I do think Phil The Tower and team do an excellent job, but a big festival main event without whizz bang updates alongside misses something to my mind

Of course the essential problem is that live updates are seen as a "sunk" cost, extremely difficult to monetise whereas it is felt that you can monetise via streams to an extent (advertising, promotion etc is easier)

(I am biased)  

[DaveShoelace]

Tighty saved me a lot of time there. Great question btw.

100% agree that the trend is now going to more instant forms of live updates such as the stream. Not only has that been the trend for people who would normally have bloggers at their event, it has also been a more affordable alternative to a fully fledged TV show on channel 4 late at night.

We are also seeing a 'self updating' trend. PokerNews have an app where you can give them your chip counts, and lots of events have twitter feeds of the players playing in them. Twitter has organically become a great alternative to live updates, one where the user can pick and choose who they follow.

In general the overall experience for the user is improving, but live updates themselves are deffo suffering as a result.

As Tighty said, live updates have never been seen as a money maker, so they are either the first thing to drop or get no help at all from the venues. I've been at many an event where there literally hasn't been an internet connection provided despite the venue wanting live updates. Now the good live updates are top heavy, ie its the big shots who do them well and not much else - PokerNews, WSOP, PokerStars, DTD - all of whom provide a great infrastructure for bloggers. 

There is an exception to all of this, and that's the Rich Prew forum based live update. Blonde single handedly proved you don't need a 20k+ budget to get good live updates. But, and its a big but, there really needs to be a strong community within the forum in order for them to work. It's the interaction, in jokes and community support which really make what Rich does a fantastic all round package. If someone like Grosvenor or Genting tried that on their own it would just be some weird guy on his own in a forum at a casino.

Does the industry support live updates? I think they all wish they could, but as you mentioned its so saturated and margins are so thin, it's sadly the first thing to easily justify to go. Then you have the guys at the top doing such a slick job imo that it just makes it seem like a battle they cant't win. I would like to see more of these 'guerrilla' style updates though. Ultimately all you need is a bloke, a laptop and a cameraphone. You'll never compete with PokerNews that way, but you can still provide something of value.

 


 

[TightEnd]

Blonde single handedly proved you don't need a 20k+ budget to get good live updates. But, and its a big but, there really needs to be a strong community within the forum in order for them to work. I

which is why people should speak to blonde about doing them for them rather than building the infrastructure themselves and doing it to a "cold" audience without the huge head start that a community used to interactive live updates provides.

Unfortunately going back a couple of years some of the host-tour company updates were pretty sterile. They need a lot of effort, a lot of content to be made to work. Ultimately I expect people stopped viewing the non-interactive ones and the tours saw that as meaning they weren't popular and wholesale switched to streams. The updates can be popular, they just need to be done right on the rightinteractive platform or by journalism of such quality (Stars Blog, Poker News writers) that they remain great reads

[DaveShoelace]

Blonde single handedly proved you don't need a 20k+ budget to get good live updates. But, and its a big but, there really needs to be a strong community within the forum in order for them to work. I

which is why people should speak to blonde about doing them for them rather than building the infrastructure themselves and doing it to a "cold" audience without the huge head start that a community used to interactive live updates provides.

True dat.

Since I finished our second book my side project has been self teaching myself tons of web building/internet marketing/SEO/conversion type stuff.

One thing I have learned a lot about is traffic. With respect to people like PokerNews, whom I think are the Rolls Royce of live updates and do an amazing job, a lot of their traffic is here today, gone tomorrow. People check out live updates and leave.

Blonde however has a highly engaged audience. Fewer in number for sure, but much more receptive and likely to 'convert' to a potential advert, new tour, new venue etc. 

The one thing I am sure of is that paying Blonde a couple of grand to do a live update is going to yield much more benefit than using that same amount of money in banner ads or single page magazine adverts.

[RED-DOG]

Quite a few surprises for me in this diary Basza. For instance, I didn't realise you had such a well developed sensitive side. (it's a plus in my book btw.)

I have some questions / comments, but I don't have time to do them atm.

Keep it going please, and add some more pictures.

[DaveShoelace]

Blonde single handedly proved you don't need a 20k+ budget to get good live updates. But, and its a big but, there really needs to be a strong community within the forum in order for them to work. I

which is why people should speak to blonde about doing them for them rather than building the infrastructure themselves and doing it to a "cold" audience without the huge head start that a community used to interactive live updates provides.

True dat.

Since I finished our second book my side project has been self teaching myself tons of web building/internet marketing/SEO/conversion type stuff.

One thing I have learned a lot about is traffic. With respect to people like PokerNews, whom I think are the Rolls Royce of live updates and do an amazing job, a lot of their traffic is here today, gone tomorrow. People check out live updates and leave.

Blonde however has a highly engaged audience. Fewer in number for sure, but much more receptive and likely to 'convert' to a potential advert, new tour, new venue etc. 

The one thing I am sure of is that paying Blonde a couple of grand to do a live update is going to yield much more benefit than using that same amount of money in banner ads or single page magazine adverts.

In fact I actually wrote about this last year, and cited Blonde as one of the few places where I'd suggest a small budgeted poker venture to pay money for advertising

http://www.pokermediapro.com/poker-marketing-on-a-budget/

[DaveShoelace]

Quite a few surprises for me in this diary Basza. For instance, I didn't realise you had such a well developed sensitive side. (it's a plus in my book btw.)

I have some questions / comments, but I don't have time to do them atm.

Keep it going please, and add some more pictures.

Cheers Red Dawg, I'm a proper big softy. I'll get some pics of the dog up soon enough.

[DaveShoelace]

At Red's request.

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Wife (Gina)

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Dog (Charlie)

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Wife and dog and me at our new home

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Jared and his wife, Jared was also my best man in New York. Best week of my life hands down.


Late Dad and dog

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Me, mum and twin sister (who everyone fancied) at the Blonde Bash. This was my mums first ever live poker game and this first big outing she did after Dad died. She had the time of her life and I am so happy I took her. She shared a table with Tikay who she thinks is brilliant and he put on a masterclass of how to treat a new player at the table, a true gent. He even bust her which I think she secretly loved. Chinese Frankie and a few other legends also showed her a fantastic time, for which I am truly grateful.


Got some good family ones somewhere and some actual professional wedding ones, but you get the idea. Sadly we always forget to take photos, except of the dog. On my iphone I have about 1,700 pics of the dog and 12 of humans.

[RED-DOG]

Some great pics there Barry.

I love the fact that we can take pictures whenever we like on our mobile phones. forget the quality, it's the moment that counts. I so wish I had more of my dad.

For want it's worth, i think you're one of those rare people who manage to figure out what's important in life before it's too late to do anything about it.

Edit:

It's never too late, but it's good to get there early.

[pleno1]

If you got to the November 9 and had 750k locked up how many people would you fly out I Vegas?

[RED-DOG]

If you got to the November 9 and had 750k locked up how many people would you fly out I Vegas?

If it was me I'd take you Patrick. Honest.

[kinboshi]

I don't think we have ever met either.

You're on my list of blondes that I haven't met yet, but would like to.

I bet it's a mutual thing.

















[ ]

[Longy]

Did you know we've met?

We stood next to reach other a couple of years ago - maybe three - at the IPO. You were talking on the rail with George2Loose and I think we were railing differing people in the same table.

We probably exchanged half a dozen words. I went away saying "I just spoke to Barry Carter".

True story.

lol, know I didn't even really know who you were until the last 12 months or so.

That's the oddest thing about poker to me, meeting 'internet friends'. I get people come up to me saying

'hi barry',

I say 'hi, who are you?'

'james'

'james who?'

'wigglebiscuits1984 from blondepoker'

or some such

 

Change the names and this is exactly the conversation we had when we met.