Integrity Issues Regarding Sponsorship

I'm so happy to see that poker players are finally getting sponsorship and endorsement deals. It's been a long time coming, and players deserve recognition and rewards for their skill. In fact, at the World Series of Poker, many players were walking billboards for various online poker sites. There were two incidents that I heard occurred at the WSOP that are cause for concern.



The first incident involved the Elle team. Elle magazine agreed to sponsor 18 women in the ladies event, with the stipulation that a portion of anything won would be donated to the American Heart Association. The team members pledged amounts ranging from 10 percent to 100 percent of their potential winnings. Lisa Tenner and her staff worked many hours coordinating the team that was made up of Hollywood celebrities, some great female players, and several members of the media. Three days before the ladies event, the agent of one of the actresses who had committed to play on the Elle team called Lisa and said that his client would have to withdraw from the team. When she asked why this was so, Lisa was informed that an online website had offered his client a fee to play on its team. In other words, this actress, who had committed to play for charity on the Elle team and had gotten the benefit of being marketed by Elle magazine in ads and press releases, had decided to sell out her commitment because a better offer had been put on the table.



By the way, some of you are aware that Jennifer Tilly was the team captain of the Elle team, so I want to make it very clear that she was not the person I referred to above. In fact, Jennifer, who is always very gracious and made many personal appearances to promote the charity aspect of the event, sent a donation to the American Heart Association (as did many others on the team) even though she didn't cash in the tournament.



The next incident is equally disturbing. Here is the background: Two college students approached an online site and requested a sponsorship deal that would have them wearing the site's logowear in exchange for some cash. The site decided it would be a good investment because it would give them some campus presence; plus, these players had shown great potential and could possibly make some future final tables and create some good exposure for the site at a later date. Well, that is exactly what happened. One of the players, wearing the site's clothing, ended up making the final table in the $1,000 no-limit hold'em rebuy event. He contacted the site's marketing director and told him that he wanted out of the deal so that he could approach other sites that might pay him to wear their gear at the final table. The marketing director pointed out that a deal is a deal, and that this potential final-table situation was exactly why the site had made the deal. He told him that he would not be released from the deal and advised him against selling out his honor for a few thousand dollars. The player ignored him, approached other sites, and eventually wore another site's logowear at the final table.



This player really showed a lack of integrity, and his irresponsibility could possibly harm potential sponsorship deals for others. After all, why would this site want to enter into other endorsement deals with players if they can't count on them being honored? When people simply ignore deals they make and other sites are willing to look the other way, knowing that the player was violating a prior deal, the situation becomes untenable. Sponsorship and endorsement deals are great for the players, but there needs to be some honor and integrity in this process or it's going to spin completely out of control. When players start abandoning their integrity and principles and reneging on their prior agreements to sell themselves to the highest bidder, it's bad for the business and it's bad for the players.



Now, let's play poker.



Linda is available to host poker events, seminars, and tournaments. She can be reached through her websites at http://www.cardplayercruises.comor/or http://www.lindapoker.com/.