Jerry Yang on Online Poker

[olivert]

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There were the Poker Royalty guys who are a little smarmy (they're agents, so kind of expected), but the night before my final table, i went crazy calling every contact at every site that I'm an affiliate for, and managed to get ahold of someone nearly everywhere, and 10K was the going rate. Bodog had a floating sponsorship schedule, which was really convoluted, and some sites just said "we don't do sponsorships", but the reps at the other sites basically said they have arrangemnets with their peer sites (wage-fixing FTW!) to offer roughly the same: 10K. Poker Royalty offered me something a little better: 10K guaranteed, + more if i made the top 2, but they take a 20% cut, and since i was the shortstack, i figured more $ in my pocket up front was best, so i just took 10K from a site.

The 'agents' basically came right up to u after the final table was set and offered u their "services". If u had contacts at the various sites (like me), u could just do it yourself and not have them take a 20% cut, but i suppose if ur a complete n00b, and someone offers u 10K just to wear a shirt and hat, you'd jump at it. ONe guy at my table got 15K up front from a small, lesser-known site, but that was the highest.
Hellmuth (at my FT), was telling us that we should hold out for 50K, but pretty sure he didn't know what the marketplace was for non-name players. 10K was standard everywhere i talked to.

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I always take a 10% commission from players on single-event logo deals with the online poker "schools" (i.e. dot-nets) I do business with. (10% commission is the standard for single-event logo deals in other sports such as Golf and Tennis. I am aware that my biggest competitor charges 20%.)

Obviously, if a player already has connections with representatives of online poker "schools" on the ground (i.e. about 75% of those who play WPT events regularly know who the FullTiltPoker.net marketing guys are), the player can cut the deal himself/herself and not use an agent.

At the 2007 WSOP, I focused mainly on European players who are NOT WPT regulars.

I am willing to do business with any dot-net with the exception of Bodog.net (which has its own people on the ground who tend to target female players, as Bodog.net outbid all others for Kelly Jo McGlothlin and Maria Ho at the WSOP Main Event) and PartyPoker.net (which still considers me to be persona-non-grata after the Robert Neary-NCAA case. PartyPoker.net does NOT do single-event logo deals.)

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For the 2008 WSOP, all agent activities will be BANNED from the tournament floor according to Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, who was NOT happy with the "aggressive" agent activities which took place at the 2007 WSOP.

[Cat]

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from the new Edition of Sports Illustrated

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Yang: "I hear horror stories about addiction and about playing four online games at once."

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Last year's World Series of Poker winner, Hollywood producer Jamie Gold, cheated during the tournament (he flashed one of his cards to an opponent) and later went to court in a squabble with a business partner over his winnings.

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[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

This article (and Yang) sound dreadful for online pokah. The chances of poker ever getting exempted from the UIGEA go down with every 'horror story' article like this, and that equals less fishies. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[SmoothCaller]

I don't know about you all, but I'm pretty sure most gods would drop any paying member that prayed from a Binion's toilet.

[Jasper109]

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i really hate jerry yang

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[RunDownHouse]

teddy,

I was also thinking about the commitments PS has gotten from WSOP winners they've sponsored in the past, since it was my understanding they got not only cash and travel but also free buy-ins for a year, etc. But in any case, thanks for throwing some transparency on final table sponsorships and agent dealings. If you've got any other details or insights I'd love to read them.

[olivert]

[ QUOTE ]
teddy,

I was also thinking about the commitments PS has gotten from WSOP winners they've sponsored in the past, since it was my understanding they got not only cash and travel but also free buy-ins for a year, etc. But in any case, thanks for throwing some transparency on final table sponsorships and agent dealings. If you've got any other details or insights I'd love to read them.

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That may have been true for the WSOP Main Event, but certainly wasn't true for ESPN-televised preliminary events.

Single-event logo deals peaked in value at the 2006 WSOP. The numbers came down quite a bit for 2007 compared to 2006 because fewer sites competed for players.

(Particularly, UltimateBet.net/AbsolutePoker.net were NOT doing single-event logo deals with random players in 2007.)

[Tyler Durden]

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jesus christ

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lol

[Aceshigh7]

Jerry Yang is clearly the most clueless WSOP champion since Varkyoni. I just can't figure out which one is worse. I'm leaning towards Yang.

[flyingmoose]

I thought Yang was sponsored by fulltilt. If so, this is such a retarded thing for him to say. It'd be like the NASCAR budweiser car talking about horror stories of alchoholism.

[dlk9s]

When I covered the WSOP last year, I overheard a conversation between an online poker room rep and one of the players that had made the final two tables of the ME, but had no sponsor at the time.

The rep offered him $30K to display a logo during the final two tables. If he made it to third place, he would get $100K. Second place, $250K. First, $1 million.

The guy wanted $50K minimum just for wearing the logo and wanted the agreement in writing. Since they were on a short break, the rep told him they didn't have time for a written agreement and he'd just have to take his company's word for it. The player stood firm, and while I don't know what the deal ended up being, it looked like the company might have been willing to up the price. The rep called the big boss, who was in his suite at the Rio, and the two men hurried off to meet him.