Daniel L. Cox
Editor, Poker Insider Magazine
July 21, 2008

29 Palms - Currently, player buy-ins fully fund the prize pools of most poker tournaments - big and small (save the infrequent freeroll or invitational). Unlike golf and bowling, where tournament sponsors increase the amount of money paid to players. The World Poker Association, founded in 2005 by Poker Professional Jesse Jones, wants to change that. To do so, they need the help of all tournament poker players, professional, semi-professional, frequent player or amatuer. With a current membership of 1,400 players, nearly 150 of them professional players, their rolls reflect a large complement of "weekend poker warriors" and other enthusiastic aficionados of the sport who thrive on tournament offerings around the world.

According to Jones, “The primary mission of the WPA is to promote professional tournament poker as a sport. That’s the first goal that we have. That means that the WPA is establishing a Code of Ethics for conduct associated with tournament players. In addition, we’re establishing standards that include tournament rules, structures, procedures, payouts, and rankings. The second part of the mission is to pursue economic opportunities for tournament poker players. That means seeking out television sponsorships and other opportunities.” Their goals include developing a promotional arrangement similar to the PGA tour, which develops sponsorship arrangements to cover the cost of each event’s purse. Jones notes that most of the PGA’s 43 events have a prize pool of at least $5 million.

Top golfers like Tiger Woods and Paddy Harrington do not have to buy into the tournaments they in which they play. Some top professional poker players have promotional contracts with sponsors, such as online sites FullTilt Poker, Bodog, PartyPoker and PokerStars, as well as land based casinos, who pay their way into tournaments. While PGA tour events have major sponsors who contribute millions to the prize pool for every event, poker players do not benefit from a similar commitment. The WPA hopes to develop sponsorship arrangements similar to what professional golfers and bowlers have. Jones added, “The amount of money going into the prize pool for the PGA is over a billion dollars total. That’s the opportunity that we have for poker.”

The 2008 World Series of Poker was hosted at The Rio by Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., who received millions of dollars in sponsor money, from television rights to everything "Officially WSOP." As you watch ESPN's coverage of the 2008 World Series of Poker on television this summer, the cameras will pan around the Rio and you will see the player area plastered with sponsorships. Each poker table has several sponsors' names and their official site background is the "World Series of Poker presented by Milwaukee's Best Light." Even the media coverage was provided by paid sponsors. Small media outlets like "Gaming Review Digest" and "The Poker Insider" were denied credentials and had to get their information from daily event e-mails and the Bluff Magazine and Poker News bloggers. You would think that with all of the sponsorship money flowing into HEI's coffers, the players would have received at least part of it in an increased prize pool. This wasn't the case. Harrah's boasted that the prize pool for the 39th WSOP was over 180 million dollars, all straight from the players pockets. Many feel that the so-called "November 9," a delay of 117 days between the determination of the final table and the playing of the final table, is primarily another way for Harrah's to gain additional marketing revenue. Again, this is revenue in which the players do not receive a share.

The only way to change how things are currently done is to organize and the best attempt so far at organizing players is the World Poker Association. Memberships are available to individual poker players. There are two classifications of voting membership - Professional Memberships are $500, while and Associate Memberships are $50. There is also a non-voting membership - Friend for $20. In addition poker related entities are invited to join as a WPA Affiliate for $2,000. Compliance with the WPA Code of Ethics of the Association and Rules in WPA events, as published on the WPA official website, is a condition of continued membership. Visit http://www.wpapoker.org for more information and an application to join.