Lee Watkinson + FT Qualifier + Winner = $18,250,000

[RonWR]

FT and other sites making this type of promotion use a insurance company , they don't pay out the entire 10M themselves

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
FT and other sites making this type of promotion use a insurance company , they don't pay out the entire 10M themselves

[/ QUOTE ]

That's ordinarily true when the payout is a cash prize. I wonder if its true where the payout is actually an endorsement contract including personal services.

--Zetack

[Sponger.]

[ QUOTE ]
FT and other sites making this type of promotion use a insurance company , they don't pay out the entire 10M themselves

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think you understand what is going on.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
i wonder if they pay for travel to these offline promotional events

would suck to have to fly all over the world on your dime, even if you're making 1 mil/year

[/ QUOTE ]

It almost certainly is not the case that he would have to travel on his own dime, although again that's usually something that would be spelled out.

But there is a huge difference between, say, 20 personal appearances of a meet & greet nature lasting 1-3 hours, and say, 52 all day appearances where you're expected to sign 600 promotional items and make an appearance in a dunking tank.

Ok, I'm joking about the dunking tank, but if Full-Tilt wants to weasel out of the contract, they could make the requirements pretty unpalattable. Not that they necessarily will of course, its just pretty broad language they have to work with. Somebody else would have to comment on whether there's an implied covenant of reasonableness and where the line on reasonableness might fall.

I would presume that a full contract would be signed and all of these things fully spelled out, by the by. I also expect that if there is a qualifying winner that he won't have a lot of bargaining power on the terms, other than, perhaps, signing up with poker stars for some much smaller amount of money.

[adanthar]

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if it's really worth $10 Mil? Say someone like Robert Varkonyi had a deal like this back in 2002 - it's doubtful that today (5 years after his ME win) he still has enough juice to be worth $1M/year to a site.

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this is actually a tricky question that I thought about a little before entering via FTP, since I have certain stock holdings that might be at issue here.

someone like Varkonyi would be very well served by a 10 year deal because he's simply not worth a million a year in endorsements. someone like Phil Ivey, pretending he won, might wind up losing a ton of money on the deal - he is very likely worth > 1m/year if he is properly marketed. OTOH, Moneymaker/Raymer/Hachem definitely aren't getting a million a year from outside deals, either (although in Greg's case, never finishing his book has something to do with that [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] )

so for the vast majority of people, the contract is far more than they'd earn any other way. for a few pros, this might be a bad deal. as for the site itself, the offers are essentially frontloaded - having that year's winner (unless he's Jamie Gold) is likely worth a ton in exposure and might pay for the cost of a 10 year annuity in year 1. everything after that is gravy.

also, if rainkhan wins, stars will go bananas over him.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

I'm not actually sure Watkinson is worth $1mm to Tilt. they already have a huge stable of famous pro's...adding 1 more doesn't have the incremental value that adding Watkinson to a medium sized room would have.

I dunno, maybe he's worth $1mm to Tilt, but worth more to others, and with the state of online poker in the US, a middle aged white guy from America may have trouble getting a sponsorship from some places.

so if he wins, it's probably a win/win.

[samsdmf]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i wonder if they pay for travel to these offline promotional events

would suck to have to fly all over the world on your dime, even if you're making 1 mil/year

[/ QUOTE ]

It almost certainly is not the case that he would have to travel on his own dime, although again that's usually something that would be spelled out.

But there is a huge difference between, say, 20 personal appearances of a meet & greet nature lasting 1-3 hours, and say, 52 all day appearances where you're expected to sign 600 promotional items and make an appearance in a dunking tank.

Ok, I'm joking about the dunking tank, but if Full-Tilt wants to weasel out of the contract, they could make the requirements pretty unpalattable. Not that they necessarily will of course, its just pretty broad language they have to work with. Somebody else would have to comment on whether there's an implied covenant of reasonableness and where the line on reasonableness might fall.

I would presume that a full contract would be signed and all of these things fully spelled out, by the by. I also expect that if there is a qualifying winner that he won't have a lot of bargaining power on the terms, other than, perhaps, signing up with poker stars for some much smaller amount of money.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty sure the conditions are on the site and were posted in BBV a month or so back (good2cu started the thread I think)

[SenatorKevin]

[ QUOTE ]
I just heard from a media source that Lee Watkinson is a Full Tilt Poker Qualifier and is playing for an extra $10,000,000 is he wins tomorrow.

Matt Savage

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Full Tilt also pays you extra just for making the final table as a qualifer. I saw the bonus schedule somewhere.. maybe someone has already posted it.

[Maple Leafs]

There's nothing binding here for FTP qualifiers, is there? If Watkinson wins he can always negotiate something else on his own if he chooses, or is he tied into this automatically once he qualifies through FTP?

[BigAlK]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not actually sure Watkinson is worth $1mm to Tilt. they already have a huge stable of famous pro's...adding 1 more doesn't have the incremental value that adding Watkinson to a medium sized room would have.

[/ QUOTE ]

The interesting thing here is that Watkinson is already part of FT's stable of "famous" pros (along with such notables as Shannon Elizabeth, Ali Nejad, and Marco Traniello). They divide them into 3 tiers ("Team Full Tilt"/"The Hendon Mob", "Full Tilt Pros", and "Friends of Full Tilt"). Watkinson is in the 2nd tier, maybe this would move him up into the 1st tier, don't know.