Venetian Reschedules NPL Televised Tournament for Bellagio Bustouts

[olivert]

WGN Superstation, by itself, reaches 90 million U.S. TV households.

Assuming that NPL will indeed air on WGN Superstation at 10pm Pacific/1am Eastern on either Saturday night or Sunday night, I anticipate that about 0.20% of WGN SS's total subscribers, or 180,000 households, will tune in on average.

Assuming 1.2 viewers per households, and assuming that 60% of the viewers are in the ages 18-49 demographic targeted by online poker "schools", one can estimate that NPL will draw 108000 targeted viewers per show.

Assuming that 1000 targeted viewers are worth $20 for every 30 seconds of logo exposure time, one can calculate that 30 seconds of logo exposure, or one "impression", on an NPL broadcast on WGN SS is worth $2590.

I actually like the way NPL will be doing the $5000 and $15000 events, with a featured TV table on each of the 3 days so that players can be rotated onto the TV table in order to generate "impressions" for their sponsors.

[olivert]

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If national television is considered to be a channel that can only be seen on HD and a "superstation" late nights, then good luck Allen.

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Ask yourself which one is better for the "sponsored" player who knows how to get a logo deal:

WPT - only 6 players out of 400+ get any TV time; coverage on a digital channel in GSN which clears about 62 million households (with about 300,000 households to tune in)

NPL - featured TV table each day, with players rotated onto the TV table every 2-3 hours; coverage on an ANALOG channel in WGN Superstation which clears about 90 million households (with about 180,000 households tuning in due to the late night time slot).

The only "top tier" TV events left in the U.S. are the WSOP and NBC heads-up.

Everything else gets relatively small audiences.

Given the choice between WPT and NPL, I am encouraging my clients to play the NPL strictly because it offers them a greater opportunity to be on TV so that they can generate "impressions" for their sponsors.

[JP OSU]

Oliver, any idea as to the field size today at all?... Also, are they starting at noon today or 3 pm?... Thinking of changing my mind at the last second...

[olivert]

[ QUOTE ]
Oliver, any idea as to the field size today at all?... Also, are they starting at noon today or 3 pm?... Thinking of changing my mind at the last second...

[/ QUOTE ]

27 players entered the 5K event, which started at around 1:30pm with registration open until 3pm.

The featured TV table started with Chris Ferguson, Lee Watkinson, and Scott Fischman, all of whom are sponsored by FullTiltPoker.net

"Jerry" Yang was eliminated by Max Pescatori at an outer table near the end of the 3rd level.

Other "names" in the field were Andy Bloch, Hoyt Corkins (won 6-handed WSOP bracelet event in 2007), Ted Lawson (2004 WSOP $5K/R PLO bracelet winner), and David Singer (back-to-back $50K WSOP HORSE Final tables, winner of Caesars Palace Classic $10K championship event in October).

Alan Sass (a.k.a. "TheUsher") was still in the field when I left at 5pm. I had gotten Alan a contingency logo deal with FullTiltPoker.net for just the NPL $5K event. Alan was on the same plane with me from San Francisco to Hong Kong last Tuesday and we both left Macau on the same ferry on Wednesday morning.

[olivert]

At the $5K event, the TV final table of 5 was set when 2 players (one of whom was Ted Lawson) busted out on the same hand.

I don't know who the 5th player was, but the 4 names I know are:

Chris Ferguson
Hoyt Corkins
Alan Sass (a.k.a. "TheUsher")
Justin Scott (2006 WSOP $2K NLHE bracelet winner, untelevised)

Only the top 3 will get paid.

[entertainme]

Take it down Usher! 2p2 is always in your corner.