WSOP GLE at the RIO

[5cardstud026]

Anyone visit the Gaming Life Expo at the Rio last weekend? How was it? Anything cool to report?

How about the dxnetpro.com? Anyone see Jennifer Harman? Anyone get a closer look at the product want to report? From the pics they have on the website it looks like they had lots of people.

[Texter]

I checked out the expo, it was a far cry from the last few years. Probably about 1/2 the clients most of which were poker themed energy drinks which tasted like crap, strip joints, or golf stuff.

That mouse thing looks silly but seemed to work pretty well...doubt it would work with my computer chair though.

Some lady was in line to get pro autographs...she says hey it's chris moneymaker...so I look to see who she was talking about...it was Hoyt Corkins.

[GiantWalleye]

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Some lady was in line to get pro autographs...she says hey it's chris moneymaker...so I look to see who she was talking about...it was Hoyt Corkins.

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LOL

[*TT*]

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I checked out the expo, it was a far cry from the last few years. Probably about 1/2 the clients most of which were poker themed energy drinks which tasted like crap

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My booth was E-Boost. Its not poker themed but we are trying to keep poker players healthy while they play at the Main Event. Our competitors are Emergen-C and Airborn, its night and day from stuff like All In, Poker Pro, and Whose Your Daddy energy drinks (All In was the healthiest of the three, but its still not the best option available to players who want to avoid illness and gain a boost of energy that won't make them crash).

The poker themed energy drink market is a bit silly, how many times can an industry recreate the red bull energy boost followed by an energy crash? I talked to Brad Booth about his product Poker Water, at least they realize the poker market is niche and isn't their main focus; Brad intends to take his product into other more mainstream markets - good call! I liked Brad, he seems to have his head on straight and understands what it really takes to make his brand sucessful.

Sorry for the tangent - back on track... I agree the expo blew. They made some serious mistakes, for example the crowd could walk through the hallways the first 1 1/2 days so many people never even saw the expo. The strippers turned many people off, and because the head of expo sales (Sharon) didnt really know the poker market she didnt think of chasing after companies that cater to the poker market. Poker Tracker, Deuces Cracked, Stox all should have been there (Taylor Caby was smart to set up a booth!). The main stream brands we all know had poor communication at their booth such as Shuffle Master, Copaig, etc. The Harrah's casinos didn't do much to encourage participation at their respective tournaments (but CEO Poker Tour was there - shady!) and WSOP didn't even have a booth to brand the WSOP Europe tour.

[Thanir]

Wow I must be an idiot. I came down there last week, and the only big booth I ever saw was the Ladbrokers booth...this area wasn't where the expo was, was it? I asked Matty since I expected a lot more booths, but he just shrugged it off (he never goes down to the casinos so I'm sure he had no clue, and could care less about them.)

[AlaskaGal]

I went to the GLE expecting to get a free t-shirt but I came out with a tattoo.

I was kind of disappointed by the number of booths set up. I thought there would be more stuff to look at.

[*TT*]

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Wow I must be an idiot. I came down there last week, and the only big booth I ever saw was the Ladbrokers booth...this area wasn't where the expo was, was it? I asked Matty since I expected a lot more booths, but he just shrugged it off (he never goes down to the casinos so I'm sure he had no clue, and could care less about them.)

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The expo was from 7/5 to 7/9. The ladbrooks pavilion was not part of the expo, I think it went up a few days earlier.

[Taylor Caby]

I was sort of disappointed by the GLE, too. I think it was still a nice value for companies that actually put some time and thought into a booth.

I think it's highly unlikely we would have seen many poker related companies (ptracker, pahud, training sites, forums, etc) if harrahs had approaches us all because most of the companies in our business do a pretty terrible job with marketing. The reason most of us are successful is because we have a good product and word of mouth spreads quickly in the poker industry. People don't realize how much work it is to run one of these businesses and most of the people end out half assing their business because they spend half their time playing poker or they just don't know any better.

I'd also like to take credit for the booth but it was marketing director/workaholic/stud ezra galston that set up and ran the whole thing.

tc

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I'd also like to take credit for the booth but it was marketing director/workaholic/stud ezra galston that set up and ran the whole thing.

tc

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ezra did a great job, it was the best small booth setup in the expo. Did you get a lot of visits/interest/signups?

Also what was up with that ridiculous Hold'em Analyzer booth, thats a perfect way to show how NOT to launch a competitive product to Poker Tracker.

[SenatorKevin]

Yeah, the CardRunners booth looked very impressive. If you guys designed that in-house then you deserve some serious props.

There was some booth selling a training video that was "enhanced by ninjas". So bad it was amusing.

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I'd also like to take credit for the booth but it was marketing director/workaholic/stud ezra galston that set up and ran the whole thing.

tc

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ezra did a great job, it was the best small booth setup in the expo. Did you get a lot of visits/interest/signups?

Also what was up with that ridiculous Hold'em Analyzer booth, thats a perfect way to show how NOT to launch a competitive product to Poker Tracker.

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