Team FullTilt: The World's First Poker Dynasty

FullTiltPoker is the most unique force in the poker world. Led by modern poker's toughest team of pros, FullTilt has set the bar for poker's commercial and economic success with its player-friendly website and marketing campaigns. By taking poker promotion to a whole new level, FullTilt has found success across the globe by bridging the gap between mainstream society and our great game. When people think of poker, FullTilt often creeps into their minds.

In case you've been living under a rock in a remote country without cable television, you probably are familiar with FullTilt's stable of some of the game's greatest players. Led by Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, Clonie Gowen, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, and Erik Seidel, FullTilt players have won 51 World Series of Poker bracelets. Last year, the team dominated at the World Series. Collectively, the crew made 26 final tables and scooped up more than $4.2 million in tournament winnings during the event.

And, so far, it looks as though 2006 will be another banner year for FullTilt stars. Seven events into this year's World Series, FullTilt has already added two more bracelets to the pile of gold on display within its futuristic hospitality lounge at the Rio. Rafe Furst and young gun Mark Vos won the $1,500 pot-limit hold'em and $2,000 no-limit hold'em events, respectively.

In addition to housing a bit more bling, FullTilt also recently added more players to its superstar roster. Carlos Mortensen, winner of the 2001 WSOP main event, and tournament terror Robert Mizrachi are the newest members of FullTilt's group of friends. The additions are already paying dividends, as "The Matador" Mortensen has set the 2006 WSOP on fire with his two final-table appearances and utter domination of two massive no-limit hold'em fields. So far at the Series, the FullTilt posse has won more than $1.9 million, with plenty of events still on the schedule.

Site Behind the Names
FullTilt is unique in that it is the only site conceived and designed by professional poker players. The site was conceived in the minds of Chris Ferguson, Tiltware LLC President Howard Lederer, and Tiltware LLC CEO Ray Bitar in September of 2003. In an effort to tap the explosive potential of the poker marketplace, a group of players and investors formed a Los Angeles-based company called Tiltware LLC.

Tiltware then developed and licensed software to FullTiltPoker, the offshore operator of the site headquartered in Aruba. In addition to creating and maintaining the ever-changing software for the site, Tiltware also handles the pioneering marketing of FullTiltPoker.

FullTiltPoker was born from poker's elite players, like Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel, working with some of the industries top computer minds. The room's platform and design, inspired by players, for players, has continued to evolve in part thanks to the FullTilt pros collaborating on the site's evolution.

By focusing on the overall player experience and by committing to a more graphics-driven site, FullTilt set its sights on poker's youthful demographics. "We wanted to do something different in the industry. Poker is a young sport and we're trying to appeal to the youth," Bitar said.

According to Tiltware's Chief Marketing Officer Bob Wolf, it was the players who pushed the intellectual envelope when it came to developing the software. "Chris Ferguson was the inspirational leader in the beginning. He felt that if poker players could design the software, it would simply be a better experience for the people playing. The pros felt that the sites available at that time, most of which had started in the late 1990s were playing on platforms that were old-fashioned. The group felt there was an opportunity from a software standpoint to develop a better gaming platform with better graphics and easy-to-use interface."

Driven more by software than marketing at that point, the small company and its less than $5 million capitalization budget began honing in on its two key focus areas: a chance to play against poker's biggest names and player education.

Play the Best - Be the Best
After looking at what would satisfy the needs of poker players, the company began focusing on two primary marketing philosophies. The first, to learn with the pros, banked on the public's desire to head to FullTiltPoker and play heads up with Phil Ivey, beat Erik Seidel out of a pot, or put Mike Matusow on tilt after drawing out on him in an Omaha eight-or-better game.

FullTiltPoker is the place where you can play with the game's best for small stakes, and if you are good enough, you might beat them. How is that for bragging rights?

The concept is ingenious, as no other sport allows easy access to the best players in the world. Imagine a golf course where you could play against Tiger Woods or Vijay Singh for 50 cents a hole, or a place where Freddy Couples and Greg Norman hold shop and it doesn't cost you the mortgage to get in on a game.

"We really wanted to bridge the gap between big buy-in and high-stakes poker and your average player," stated Bitar. "We wanted players at home to be able to play with the best in the world - somebody like Phil Ivey, who plays $4,000-$8,000 at Bellagio and plays in big buy-in tournaments. It's almost impossible for your average players to sit down and play against him unless they come to the site."

Classroom of the Pros
Besides playing with the pros, Tiltware has capitalized on a desire that drives nearly every poker player: a want and need to improve. The site offers detailed tips from pros - from Jennifer Harman analyzing big-blind play to Howard Lederer outlining the danger of slow-playing. With the site's debut, there was finally a place where players could play against and learn from the best players in the game. Think of it as higher education for poker players. When you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best.

The education doesn't stop with poker tips, as it has been taken to another level with the FullTiltPoker.net television show Learn From the Pros, on Fox Sports Network. This move into branded television content propelled FullTilt to the highest echelon of poker marketing, as it reached out to a broad global audience.

Hosted and written by Howard Lederer and the host of the Best Damn Sports Show Period, Chris Rose, the first season's 26 30-minute episodes began by teaching beginning poker strategy and continued to develop the strategies for more experienced players as the series progressed. With FullTilt players like Phil Ivey and Jennifer Harman, and special guests like Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen, the show provides insight into game play that could improve a player's skills substantially.

The Learn From the Pros series is just one of FullTilt's forays into branded content. FullTiltPoker has also pioneered the concept of live poker, producing three live tournaments that have been televised globally over the past year.

Marketing Genius
Everyone in poker should thank FullTilt. Why? As marketing and promotional gurus, not just for the poker industry but for the general entertainment marketplace, its team has helped poker invade the mainstream.

The company's innovative advertisements have garnered tons of praise and exposure. FullTilt's first promotional campaign "Poker in Athens," which was launched in 2004, was based on the concept that poker should become an Olympic sport. This legitimate claim made news around the world. Featured on numerous television and radio shows, FullTilt's capitalization on the media frenzy for the Olympics paid off, and successfully launched the first wave of FullTilt's publicity machine. The "Poker in Athens" TV spots were so creative, they were nominated for an award at the Cannes Film Festival, and also won a Belding Award from the Los Angeles Advertising Club. Following up on "Poker in Athens," Full Tilt launched its first campaign leveraging its star power. One of those commercials featuring Phil Ivey is now included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

FullTilt isn't resting on its laurels. The group recently launched another blockbuster campaign known as the "House." Designed to make players feel like they are welcome at the site, the advertisements focus on FullTilt's being a place where poker players want to be. With a warmer feel than the earlier FullTilt advertisements, the concept of "To learn, chat, and play with the pros, go where they live" instantly made the site's elite group of players more approachable. This campaign is a metaphor for the site, a place where the pros hang out and where amateurs are welcome.

The Software
Dynamite promotion aside, software and a dynamic poker site have always been the foundation of FullTilt's success. Recent upgrades and changes have made overall site navigation easier by providing a clean and intuitive interface that lets players find the ring games and tournaments they are looking for. FullTilt has also made links to tournaments that assist players find satellites into upcoming events.

One of the site's more unique features is its custom filtering capabilities. This option lets players get immediate information on games and tournaments that specifically fit their needs. If a player is looking for high-stakes action, all he has to do is select it in the filter and the information will appear in the lobby. Players can also filter by satellite, private, events, prize package, buy-in, and much more.

FullTilt has also improved the playability features when players are at the tables, featuring new countdown timers that change colors once time starts to run out, a new total-pot display that tells players how much has been committed to a pot, and more functional slider bar in the betting window so that players can bet with ease.

"From day one, it was about how we could we make it easier and less strenuous to play poker for a long time. Things like the position of the buttons, the colors that we use, the actions, the sounds. You may have a particular sound in a poker game that sounds realistic, but try to listen to that sound for four straight hours and see how you feel. We've always tried to keep in mind what it's like to play for long stretches of time. Everything we did on the site was all behind how to make it less strenuous for the players," Bitar said.

The company is always improving its product, and as a testament to its innovation, it was one of the first sites to welcome Mac users. According to Wolf, the process of software development is a tedious project. "Software is never done. It's kind of like painting a bridge. Once you finally get done, the other side has to be painted again. I think this appeals to the players, as well. These guys love challenge, and they're just so smart. Ferguson has been involved in online gaming since its beginnings, and has a lot of input. Howard, Phil Gordon, they all have input."

If easy-to-play site capabilities and superstar players don't whet players' whistles, then the WSOP event buy-ins certainly should. FullTilt is sending more than 400 players to the 2006 World Series of Poker main event and has placed an additional 250 players into WSOP preliminary events.

On top of that, if one of the site's online qualifiers wins the WSOP $10,000 main event, he'll receive what may be the best early Christmas present ever. FullTilt will sweeten the win by paying another $10 million on top of the first-place prize.

"We really want someone to win this money. It would be great exposure for both the player and the site," stated Bitar.
Brains Behind the Business

Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer, and Bob Wolf lead the FullTilt team. Wolf, an advertising genius and former CEO of Chiat Day Advertising North America, has worked with clients like Apple, Energizer, and Nissan, but left his business to lead Tiltware's and FullTilt's marketing to the "Poker Promised Land." Wolf is the man behind the Reservoir Dog look that has helped make FullTilt's players some of the most recognized people in poker.

While Wolf is the up-front marketing face of FullTiltPoker, Tiltware LLC CEO Bitar is more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. Much preferring to work in the background, this longtime online poker player left his career as an equities trader to take the helm at Tiltware.

According to Bitar, he's thrilled to have played a part in elevating poker players' fame quotient. "I never imagined that poker players would be as big as rock stars, if not bigger. I think it's great for the game and great for them. They've also done a great job of not letting it get to their heads. They're still the most down-to-earth people you'll ever find. Minus the fancy cars, they're still really normal. They're still the same people who would help each other or a friend who was in need."

Howard Lederer is one of the most respected poker pros/businessmen in the industry. Well thought of by the players, the gaming authorities, and television executives, he has brought irrefutable credibility to the FullTiltPoker brand, particularly when recruiting potential pros and negotiating ancillary deals on behalf of the brand.

The person tapped with ensuring that the players stay in the limelight is Michele Clayborne. As a former vice president of the uber-publicity firm Fleishman Hillard International Communications, Los Angeles, maximizing the exposure of FullTilt's players is just one job on her constantly growing to-do list. Clayborne has gotten Chris Ferguson on the cover of Financial Times, secured a six-page spread in FHM Magazine featuring FullTilt pros, is overseeing a three-month Esquire Magazine, UK initiative featuring the FullTilt pros, and has orchestrated numerous player interviews in print, television, and radio mediums both in the U.S. and internationally. As if that wasn't enough, FullTilt continues to develop its message by running full-page ads in The Wall Street Journal, securing 28-page inserts in Maxim, and making attention-grabbing moves like sponsoring the Winky Wright boxing fight and having a "FullTiltPoker Room" at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Results
There is very little that FullTilt has not done when it comes to the world of poker. Developing top-flight software, establishing the premier posse of players, and placing itself on the tips of the tongues of poker players everywhere are just a few of the reasons why FullTilt will continue to maintain its position and reputation as a titan of the poker world.

Led by some of the best minds in the poker industry, both on the felt and behind the scenes, FullTilt has achieved enormous success by providing its customers and its player representatives with the best possible playing experience. In other words, it has made an art form out of changing the poker landscape.

In the end, it's difficult to tell which is more impressive, the machine that is behind the site or the organization's group of players who have come to dominate the poker community. By working together, the two groups have set an industry standard that has more than its share of imitators, and unless the universe implodes, FullTilt will continue its trailblazing growth.