WASHINGTON, June 16 (UPI) -- The winner of this year's World Poker Tour championship, whose name will not be announced before the tournament's June 30 TV air date, will walk home with $2.7 million, according to a spokeswoman for the tournament.
But the real high-dollar winners in the flood of new televised poker games are not the players, but the TV networks, tournament owners, and licensing partners cashing in on the craze.
"Poker used to be the bastard step child of the gaming industry -- there was no revenue because no one cared," said World Poker Tour creator Steve Lipscomb.
"That all changed with this new social phenomenon. Now every casino that can, is putting in a poker room, otherwise they're missing an entire segment of the ... population," Lipscomb said.
This week alone, there are six different tournaments airing, some on TV more than once: Sunday, June 13, viewers saw "Celebrity Poker Showdown" on Bravo, "Showdown at the Sands" on Fox Sports, and "World Poker Tour: Hollywood Home Game" on Travel. Monday brought reruns of these tournaments, while Tuesday featured "Late Night Poker" on Fox Sports and a replay of the "2003 World Series of Poker" on ESPN and ESPN2.
Wednesday night, Travel will show "World Poker Tour: Cruisin' Mexico," and several of the week's reruns will air Thursday night. Saturday night, June 19, brings Travel's "World Poker Tour: Poker Primer."
Producer Sam Riddle, whose previous projects include Star Search, is currently holding auditions for a new, strip poker show called "Ultimate Poker Babes."
Ratings for the current poker shows are skyrocketing. "During the average minute of the program, season two of the World Poker Tour averages a 1.19 rating, or about 893,000 households," said Travel Channel spokeswoman Karen Sager in an e-mail.
"'San Jose's Bay 101' (aired last week, June 9) averaged a 1.5 household rating, or about 1.13 million households during an average minute. It is the highest-rated World Poker Tour program for households," Sager continued. Poker shows account for the highest ratings in Travel Channel history.
Lipscomb said he expects the televised-poker phenomenon to continue to "expand and explode."
Advertisers on the poker shows include Captain Morgan rum and Bombay Sapphire gin. "I think it's fair to say that (advertising on televised poker tournaments) is in high demand," Sager said, but "as a privately held company, we do not disclose our earnings or financials."
However, it is clear that advertising on poker tournament shows is hot. New York-based media buying firm Initiative Media's spokeswoman Anaka Kobzev said that while normally the company would love to comment about what "has really become a mini-phenomenon in advertising," it couldn't because the company is currently in negotiations with one of the poker TV shows.
Other advertising industry executives concurred that this would be a common problem, since many similar deals are currently in the works.
The earnings don't even stop when the televisions are turned off. A month ago, World Poker Tour announced several licensing partnerships designed to rake in more earnings. Companies like the United States Playing Card Company and other toy makers and G-III Apparel and other clothing manufacturers will offer official World Poker Tour products, according to a World Poker Tour release.
The release also said the company had reached an agreement with MDI Entertainment LLC, a company that creates state lottery games, to design a Texas Hold 'Em scratch-off game with "poker-related prizes."
A spokesman for Brandgenuity, the company that, according to the release, "assisted the World Poker Tour in the strategic development and execution of its licensing program," declined to estimate the worth of the agreements.
However, some poker experts contend that players aren't seeing any of this cash. Poker player and owner and publisher of Live Action Poker Magazine and liveactionpoker.com, Eric Rosenberg, scoffed in a recent column at World Poker Tour's claim they're doing for the card game what the formation of the PGA in 1916 did for golf.
"After two seasons of ... tournaments, neither (major World Poker Tour investor Lyle) Berman nor his company, Lakes Entertainment, has added anything to the prize pools of the poker tournaments they promote," Rosenberg wrote.
"And while corporate America is pouring millions into the organization by way of television advertising, the poker players who participate in these tournaments have yet to see a penny of it," he continued.
Furthermore, he said in an e-mail: "These poker TV shows, and the casinos hosting the tournaments, are no longer allowing the players to wear logo merchandise from their own individual sponsors."
That may be true, other players said, but the situation isn't as bad as it sounds.
"The big, quality players appreciate all of the attention they're getting, because it causes more people to join," said Evan Babcock, a Washington D.C. resident in post-graduate study at American University by day and a player in online poker tournaments in his free time.
Babcock said tournaments hosting 800 players last year accommodated more than 1,500 this year. "And most of those people can't play. Winnings have doubled and it's all going to go up a ton again next year," he said.
"Risk is part of the process (for the players)," he continued. "Organizers and executives don't add any money directly, but more people are attracted to play in the tournaments," so the prize pots grow accordingly.
"I don't think the pros begrudge (the money TV networks are making) at all," Babcock said.
Babcock is just getting into the poker tournament circuit. "I've seen some AC action," he said, referring to tournaments in Atlantic City. "But no monster tournaments."
Instead, he spends two days a week at six to 14 hours per day playing poker online, and less when school is in session.
A serious player for about a year, he said his $1,100 profit from a couple of weeks ago was his biggest single-day winning. Normally, he makes "a couple hundred dollars a day," he said, playing a hand online as he spoke to UPI.
"At this moment, as of Tuesday afternoon at 12:14 p.m., there are 5,247 people playing on 795 (virtual) tables," he said.
"I would love to get involved in next year's World Series of Poker (in Las Vegas in May 2005), but I don't know if I can make it happen," he said.
Making it happen involves raising the $10,000 or higher buy-in, or participation fee. "Partly it depends on how well I do this summer," Babcock said.
And this mindset, Lipscomb said, is the key to poker's pop culture success.
"It offers this dream. Next season, we're going to be making a millionaire a month," he said.
