When it comes to the roles and responsibilities of a sponsored professional poker player PokerStars have pretty much created the perfect template. The blueprint was to choose a small group of select individuals from the main countries of interest, all designed to show the human race that if they want to go digging in a poker garden that it’s a red spade that they use.
The thing that always impresses me about PokerStars is they are always looking at improving their product, and the sponsored pro blueprint was no exception. As soon as people like myself started to question the value of a sponsored pro, they went and hired some of the world’s biggest sports stars and slapped a patch on them instead.
Ronaldo, Boris Becker and Rafael Nadal…pure genius.
As I believe in the theory of evolution I am pretty excited about what comes next. How are PokerStars going to top the signings of three of the biggest stars in the history of the sports in which they represent?
As I stare over the horizon to see what’s coming, it’s not a red spade that I see. Instead, it’s a ship with a funny little diamond on the sail and it looks like everyone on board is having one hell of a party.
The evolution of poker sponsorship has already begun and it’s PartyPoker who are trying desperately to snatch the baton from the largest online poker room in the world, and I think once it’s in their palm they can run with it for quite a distance.
PartyPoker are not making deals with the sports biggest players. They are making deals with the sports biggest teams. The natural development of the evolution of poker sponsorship.
Rafael Nadal, Ronaldo and Boris Becker have a pretty hefty following, but that following is nothing compared to the might of Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus, Marseille and Anderlecht.
At the recent PartyPoker.com Road to Old Trafford event me and 170 other players got the opportunity to sit down in Old Trafford and play, and chat with the Manchester United stars of past and present: Darren Fletcher, Quinton Fortune, Norman Whiteside, Dwight Yorke and Bryan Robson no less. I nearly wet my knickers with excitement.
And the joint working groups are not going to stop there.
PartyPoker have already unveiled their Poker Champions Cup feature that will see players facing off in a 5-handed Sit & Go format with a whole host of football prizes up for grabs.
You can win signed jerseys from either Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus, Marseille or Anderlecht; a VIP experience with one of these clubs including home game tickets for two people, and a meet and greet stadium tour, that will involve meeting some of the legends of the game just like I did at Old Trafford.
It’s not just in European football that PartyPoker are investing their hard earned advertising dollar, but also Ice Hockey and Basketball. The innovative deals with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, have come at a time when PartyPoker returns to the country that they left so abruptly due to the fear of those five words U.I.G.E.A.
It’s just like old times.
PartyPoker has picked up the crown it left rattling on the U.S floor, and it’s nice to see that it still fits perfectly. The brand recognition at the NHL and NBA games is only the start of what I believe will be many more interesting deals in the coming years.
Then you have the deal that the World Poker Tour (WPT) struck with Monster Inc. It’s not just poker players who are wearing these stylish cans. They have become synonymous with chic. A must have part of the clobber of any young stud or hot chick. These are the kids we want to see at the tables, and the signing of Monster Inc. Is every bit as significant as ink spots on those sporting contracts.
So the evolution of poker sponsorship has moved from the upstarts of the professional poker world, to the stars of world sport, to the teams that operate in the biggest leagues in the world.
What next?
The PartyPoker sponsored Premier League?
Go and get it boys.
