EPT London - Victoria Coren

[olivert]

Bad news to those of you who are looking for long-term sponsorship deals.

Veteran British TV poker personality Victoria Coren won the European Poker Tour (EPT) event in London on Sunday.

Coren becomes the first woman to win a TELEVISED OPEN event at either the WSOP, WPT, or the EPT.

I now expect every British sportsbook and online poker room to bid for Coren's services as spokeswoman.

Furthermore, I now expect the bidding for Coren to start at USD$500,000 per year for at least 2 years, for a deal worth well over USD$1 million.

The sooner Vicky Coren gets her endorsement deal done, the better for everyone else.

[woodguy]

How does this relate the nefarious interweb-china-WPT-mafia poker world domination scheme?

I'm confused [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Regards,
Woodguy

[BriMc]

Buy up tin foil now! There's going to be a run on hats!

[Kevmath]

I had thought Vicky was sponsored by Paradise for quite a while, but I see her sporting Stars gear on The Hendon Mob's forum.

[olivert]

[ QUOTE ]
I had thought Vicky was sponsored by Paradise for quite a while, but I see her sporting Stars gear on The Hendon Mob's forum.

[/ QUOTE ]

SportingBet PLC discontinued all player sponsorships when it took over ParadisePoker.com.

Signing Victoria Coren to a long term endorsement/sponsorship deal will cost PokerStars or one of its rivals an arm and a leg. I would not be surprised to see the bidding go above $1 million a year.

I peg the absolute minimum bid for Coren's services as spokeswoman to be $500,000 a year for at least 2 years, if not 3 years.

There is no doubt that every British talent agent who knows anything about TV poker and his brother and sister will be contacting Coren for possible representation.

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Coren's win at the EPT in London is bad for everyone else IN THE SHORT TERM who are shopping for sponsorship deals, as the entire online poker world will now be almost 100% focused on bidding for the Coren sponsorship/endorsement deal.

However, once Coren gets her sponsorship deal done, the dollar amount of the deal will set a new benchmark for everyone else. That might be good for certain people in the long run.

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What is for certain: a "young gun" American who wins a single WPT event, a single WSOP bracelet, or a single EPT event is not worth much if anything at this point, as there is a glut of "young gun" Americans out there who have won a single televised event and TV poker ratings in the U.S. have flattened out in 2006, the 4th year of the TV poker phenomenon.

The "young gun" will have to win TWO in a single year the way "The Grinder" did in order to be worth something to sponsors. Jeff Madsen did a quick deal with FullTiltPoker.NET after he won his 2 bracelets off camera.

[mephisto]

Because I'm Canadian we get all of the European poker tv shows and I see Victoria a lot from the celebrity poker showdown to the Ladbrokes Poker Million. She can play for sure unlike some overhyped North American women stars. I hope she has a good agent because she can fetch for a lot of dollars bills...

[olivert]

[ QUOTE ]
Because I'm Canadian we get all of the European poker tv shows and I see Victoria a lot from the celebrity poker showdown to the Ladbrokes Poker Million. She can play for sure unlike some overhyped North American women stars. I hope she has a good agent because she can fetch for a lot of dollars bills...

[/ QUOTE ]

Victoria Coren is almost "the total package":

She can definitely play poker.

She can act and she is photogenic: bleach blonde hair with a pleasant "face" and a good voice.

She can write.

The only minus I can think of: she smokes cigarettes. That might not be as bad for her image in Europe as it would have been if she were North American, but smoking is fast becoming an image-killer in Europe as well, especially for women.

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Below is a much better photo of Victoria Coren.

You can decide for yourself whether Victoria Coren is worth USD$1 million a year to an online poker school or a sportsbook.

(For comparison: Erica Schoenberg got a 3 year deal from MANSION that is worth around USD$400,000 a year, or USD$1.2 million total, with no prior track record.)

[donger]

Nice part about Vicki Coren is that she's attractive, a writer and well spoken. She should fetch way more than some drooling gambooler who can't string two sentences together.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

Olivert,
I think the # of sites sponsoring big names is actually decreasing. Full Tilt and Poker Stars are doing a lot more than they used to, but it seems like a number of medium/small sites have stopped. and when they do, it's for a very specific demo.

So I agree that some 22 year old American has basically no value, but I also think deals for attractive players are harder to come by from most sites. The # of bidders seems to have decreased, but I'm not sure.

[chip_nich]

She is already a successful journalist without poker,and recently started writing a poker column for "the Guardian" newspaper here in the UK.
I would have thought this win would validate her respect in the poker community,and would increase exposure with her being the first female winner.
PS-She's got a nice pair of Bullets-which should do no harm too.