I complained recently that I felt Harrah’s was improperly prioritizing ESPN and other sponsors over the players in its decision to delay the final table of the WSOP main event. At the risk of boring everyone to death on this issue, I’m going to share some recent, competing thoughts from prominent poker players/bloggers.
First off, Michael Craig, editor of the FTP Strategy Guide, argues that in fact this will cost Harrah’s (which apparently is now called Caesar’s) money and should be seen as a far-sighted gamble rather than mere pandering to ESPN:
This move is the opposite of slapping a logo on the final table for a few million bucks. Caesars makes no money off this change in the presentation of the final table in the short term and, in fact, it has to spend more money. Caesars has three years to run on its contract with ESPN and the contract doesn’t provide more money for better ratings or more advertiser money. The Rio has to tear down the World Series and put it back up in November, probably shutting down some revenue-producing showroom for a crowd that doesn’t have to pay. That’s not a huge additional expenditure but it’s worth noting: this is no cash-grab.
Craig also strongly disagrees with my claim that tournaments ought to cater to the players simply because we pay entry fees:
Even though we’re still playing for our own money in nearly all tournaments, not to mention paying for the privilege of playing for our own money, we benefit from poker’s popularity in the form of more entries (usually newer, presumably less-skilled players) and potential secondary sources of income (e.g., endorsements, product placements, media opportunities). That we are still making a living off the boom times of 2004 and 2005 does not mean that poker is still hot. WSOP ratings on ESPN are down. WPT ratings have plummeted. Hasn’t Celebrity Poker Showdown – a good barometer of how interested the general public is in watching poker on TV – left the air for good?
Daniel Negreanu similarly argues that poker, in the US anyway, badly needs a shot-in-the-arm such as this:
I don’t have any idea how much money Harrah’s makes off the WSOP. I’m guessing, though, that the number people assume is far greater than the actual amount.
As a poker community we need to wake up a bit and realize the situation we are in, specifically in the U.S. Attendance is down in most tournaments, ratings for the premiere poker shows has also dipped. Poker is no longer seen as this “gold mine stock” amongst the mainstream public. There has been a lull in mainstream interest (a lot of that can definitely be credited to the UIGEA to some degree).
The poker players DON’T hold all the cards, despite the fact that many of us would like to believe that. We don’t have a ton of well funded companies chomping at the bit to get in on the poker craze at the moment.
I daresay my own initial reactions may have been a big misguided.
Welcome to the dark side.
I’m not surprised that ratings are down for all poker shows, but TV has been so over saturated by the volume of shows/movies dealing with poker and casinos. I think there’s still a huge interest, and this is difficult to measure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more home/weekly games being played than ever.
While I don’t like the idea of delaying the final table until November, I do not think the arguement that Craig makes about the Rio having to tear down the World Series and put it back up in November holds much water
Firstly, they will not have to setup for 6,000+ players, only 1 table.
Secondly, the final table will be a big promotion for the Rio. I don’t know what events they normally host in November (and I reckon most other people don’t) but this is a world wide event. With all the ESPN hype leading up to the last few days, I would guess the RIO should be able to pull in a much bigger crowd than they would on a normal November weekend.
This may be a laughably dumb question, but why can’t they just show the final table live the next day in July?
I would guess they use the 3 months for production & editing time.
Good points about Harrah’s profitability, kirch.
They don’t air poker live because they want to be able to show the hole cards and it would be impossible to insure that that information wasn’t being signaled to players at the table in some way if it were broadcast to millions of people at the same time. Last year, they did show the final tables of earlier events on PPV with like a one-hour delay.
The four month delay accomplishes a few things. It gives ESPN time to air all the episodes leading up to the final table, and it gives the players time to promote themselves and get endorsements.
They are going to air the final table broadcast within hours of taping it, so there won’t be a lot of time for editing and production. I imagine they’ll be working pretty furiously that day to pull it all together.