Where does TV poker coveage ad money go?

[Greg (FossilMan)]

resboard, what are you talking about? Nobody but you mentioned anything about cheating. And nobody said anybody was doing anything wrong, they just said where is the money going, and why aren't the players getting any of it?

The events are not televised by the casinos, they are televised by ESPN, WPT, etc. These people who make the tv shows don't pay anything to run the tournament, rent the space, or the stuff like that. The tv people only pay the camera crews and such, the direct costs of filming and televising the show.

Then, in most and possibly all cases, the casino pays money to the production company. For sure the WPT host casinos and Harrahs pay money to the WPT and ESPN, respectively. Then, the production companies make more money by selling ads.

It is, of course, true, that nobody is forcing anybody to play in these events, so the production companies and casinos are not stealing, per se. However, that doesn't mean that a more equitable split of the money wouldn't see some of the TV profits going to the players, it just means that the players don't have any power or ability, at least for now, to force such an equitable split. If we are ever able to effectively unionize, or some such arrangement, then we would have such power, and as a group we would make more money. It was very hard for each of the different major pro sports to unionize, and it will be infinitely harder for poker pros to ever do so, as the public is much less able to distinguish the talent level of a top pro from that of a second tier pro when watching them on tv. When it comes to football pros or the like, it is apparent to fans that they are watching a top pro, or not.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[UATrewqaz]

In my opnion the relationship of

Poker Players <- Casino <- TV Network

is very similiar to

Football Player <- NFL <- TV Network

and it would seem in both cases the players are entitled to a share of the revenue.

The difference is that sports teams have unions and are highly organized to make demands.

Even if every "name" player boycotted events there would be plenty of nobodies still buying in. And the tv/poker press would simply begin making new "names"

[resboard]

Ok i really think some of you are not understanding this.

WSOP is a business. They are in the business of running Poker tournaments. WSOP Rents the casino. When you buy in you are paying a fee to the house and you are contributing to the prize pool. We all agree on that.

What happens from there. Well WSOP takes its videos and says who wants to pay me for these, well ESPN currently does. ESPN buys the rights to the WSOP recordings. So now WSOP is done. They made money from the rake to cover the cost of running the tournament, and they made their profit selling their tapes. Don't we agree businesses deserve to make money?

Now ESPN takes their new tapes and puts them on television. They make their money from selling ads. The money from these ads goes to covering the money they spent on the tapes from WSOP, and anything on top is profit.

Where in this line does anyone think money should be put back into the pool?


On a side note, down with unions. Unions destory most businesses.

BTW Greg I am fan.

[UATrewqaz]

They aren't putting any money towards the players because they don't have to, their businesses are functioning at a high level of profitability without having to do so.

The NFL could have a rule stating "all players make 100K a year" but such would cripple the sport. All the best players would boycott, they would see the billions generated and demand a larger cut. The public would lose interest in the NFL because they want to see the best players and a high level of competition. Although the NFL could find replacement players (and has before) people wouldn't like it nearly as much and profits would dry up.

Long story short, sports leagues give players a cut of the tv money because they have to.

I don't blame poker organizations (WSOP/WPT) for not giving money to the players. They simply don't have to right now. The players aren't organized enough to demand it and the public doesn't care about the "stars" as much as they do with sports.

[ QUOTE ]
Unions destory most businesses

[/ QUOTE ]

Unions can be very corrupt and can do alot of stupid stuff, however they also can achieve positive things too.

[ne14dirt]

The WPT, the EPT, the WSOP and all of the lesser televised tournaments should not pay the players a dime, and in turn the players should see this as their opportunity to seize on the fact that Lyle Berman and his ilk are putting money in their back pockets that rightly should go to the players.

If the poker boom lasts I see it going the same way as baseball did many many years ago. During baseballs inception players we paid very poorly and basicly told that there were lucky to be paid at all. Then many years later the players realized they were providing all the content, without them the game did not exist in the form it was presented to the public.


The guy earlier who was talking about Wheel of Fortune……the participant pool is never ending......no relevance to this topic. He goes on to say that we don’t think like businessmen. Well I would say it depends on what side of the business we are talking about, the player side or the owner side. And I’d finally like to comment on the fact that union destroy most business.......bla bla bla

[Joe O]

Guys, you can stop trying to reason with resboard. He's obviously an idiot and his argument comes down to this
[ QUOTE ]

On a side note, down with unions. Unions destory most businesses.


[/ QUOTE ]
He's just a retarded Alex Keaton. Leave him be.

[Grasshopp3r]

Greg is a board member of the PPA. Does he characterize the PPA as a union? Does he envision some sort of qualifying process like the PGA with their own separate events or does he view the egalitarian nature of poker with basicly unlimited fields where everyone who puts up their cash can play?