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

[El Diablo]

ad,

"OTOH, Moneymaker/Raymer/Hachem definitely aren't getting a million a year from outside deals"

Are you sure about that?

[ericicecream]

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That's a pretty big EV. We were discussing last night whether there would be any way to chop that.

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AFAIK its a sponsorship fee and not a lump sum payment. In return for the 10 mil he would have to do commercials, print ads, etc. for the next few years.

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For 10m I doubt he'll mind.

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The point is that he can't represent other online casinos who might bid more than 1 million/year for 10 years.

I'll bet that if someone else wins, they will get sponsorship worth in the range of 10 million/ten years or better.

[murph0110]

the only pro who has ever been worth their sponsorship weight is moneymaker... plain and simple... there is no pro/player/winner who would ever be worth 1 million today..

regardless, lee, along with david singer, were the only two qualifiers online through full tilt ass with the site. if lee wins, he gets 1 million a year, for 10 years...

he would have to do commercials, play a set number of events every year, other promotional, cannot promote other sites, etc...

poker stars was 1 million for the winner with no type of contract attached (i think)...

[GrindingIt]

Do you think there's any chance FT is in business 40 years? Doubt it. Take a million instead.

edit, heard earlier 250k/yr, maybe he'll get a year or two at 1mil unless he's american then gl

[texman]

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Player agrees to play a minimum of 10 hours per week at Full Tilt Poker.com, and to attend any promotional events or tournaments that Full Tilt Poker deems appropriate.


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basically you are their "boy" for each year. so does that mean you have to play wsop events straight through for 6 weeks? or go to the bulgarian full tilt european open?

[12ressiMorP]

does this mean checks from FTP will take even longer now?

[Cactus Jack]

For Lee Watkinson, this might be a great deal. For Mike Matusow or Daniel or someone with a high-rev motor, this might not be.

[beaver]

can't wait to see espn do another piece on lee's monkey antics

go lee! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[52s]

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Watkinson is in the 2nd tier, maybe this would move him up into the 1st tier, don't know.

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If FTP stays with the pattern they've used the past couple years, he would seem to be a lock to be moved up to Team Full Tilt based on the final table appearance alone, which is how Matusow and Cunningham got moved up to the "top tier".

OTOH, he doesn't have the... "name status", I guess you can call it, of those two, so it's not as automatic as the recent pattern suggests.

The one big thing FTP has been missing in the past 4 years is having the current WSOP ME Champion represent the site - if Watkinson or anybody else at the final table that sells their soul to FTP were to win it all, I presume they'd get a one-way ticket into "Team Full Tilt" and will be pimped out everywhere for all they're worth.

And let's be honest, out of all the pictures I've seen of the players left, I get the feeling the one that's still wearing FTP gear that FTP would want to win it all is Alex Kravchenko, so they can pimp him hard to the Eastern Bloc and Mother Russia at the Moscow Millions and beyond.

On that note, I wonder why Carlos Mortenson is still a "Full Tilt Pro" having won the WPT Championship and all, and hasn't been moved up.

[FyteOn]

You guys are also missing the point about the upfront benefit. It's not just about is the pro "worth it". They got new customers without the person winning. They have been advertising the extra $10m in magazines all year. So they've made money there. And yes, they use an insurance company to underwrite the contest - just like every hole in one contest at your company's golf outing. As for the appearances, it's all been spelled out in the contract they signed. You have to X amount of appearances/commercials, etc for X amount of years. They're not going to make it onerous. They're not shelling out $10m hoping to get $10m in revenue. The underwriting was done based on the formula of how many players from FTP in the ME and the odds one random person would win + profit for the underwriting company. FTP makes money on this deal either way.