Steve Ruddock
Poker on TV may still be the best way for online poker rooms to get their message and brand out to a responsive public, but in recent years online gaming sites have also started looking toward other marketing avenues that might have some crossover appeal to their target audience; key among these are sports teams and sporting events.
In this installment of Around Online Poker I’ll take a look at two of the bigger sports sponsorships deals by online gaming sites, and bring you some information on the recent decision by Ladbrokes to move key employees from the UK to Israel.
888 Poker and PGA EuroPro Tour
According to a recent press release, 888 Poker has decided to renew their sponsorship of the PGA EuroPro Golf Tour for 2013. “We enjoyed a fruitful relationship with 888poker in 2012 and are thrilled that they want to be a part of the PGA EuroPro Tour once again this summer,” said Barry Hearn, the Chairman of Matchroom Sport. While Itai Pazner form 888.com stated; “Last year’s tour was a great success for our poker brand and offered our online player’s access to the prestigious PGA Tour. We hope this year our new integrations will take the partnership to the next level.”
Unlike other online gaming sponsorships that tend to focus on sports-betting and casino games, the PGA EuroPro sponsorship is solely being done by 888 Poker, giving the company’s poker brand a chance to shine.
The PGA EuroPro Golf Tour may not be the major leagues of European golf, but the tour has sent many players onto fruitful careers in the European PGA Tour and the PGA Tour. The list of PGA EuroPro graduates includes Nicolas Colsaerts, Ross Fisher, Louis Oosthuizen, and 2011 Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel.
PGA EuroPro events take place across the UK, running from April to October, the joint venture by the PGA and Matchroom Sports.
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Bet365 and EPL’s Stoke City
There are very few human billboards more desirable than an English Premier League football team, which is why some of the biggest companies in the world have their logos prominently displayed across the uniforms of Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea. But even lower tier English Football teams offer prime advertising real estate, with a rabid fan-base as well as television exposure, which is why Bet365’s sponsorship of Stoke City has been such a boon for the online poker site. Bet365’s sponsorship deal with Stoke City was signed in 2012 and runs for three years, although as you’ll see below this sponsorship deal is likely to be extended.
While Stoke City finished near the bottom of the pack in the past EPL season (costing Manager Tony Pulis his job after the high expectations that accompanied the signing Peter Crouch) the storied football club is usually a serious player, having finished as the runner-up in Championship League Play in 2008, which saw them promoted to the EPL the following year; where they have remained since.
It should be noted that Bet365 head honcho Peter Coates also owns Stoke City FC, which is why the Bet365 sportsbook has decided not to offer odds on who will replace Pulis as Manager –a usually common practice at sportsbooks in the UK, and why it’s likely the sponsorship will be renewed following the 2014 season! This is the second go-round for Peter Coates as the owner of Stoke City, the football team he grew up rooting for.
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Ladbrokes moves key personnel to new office in Israel
Sometimes I’m astonished where I’ll find an interesting tidbit or newsbite regarding the online poker world, and so it was this weekend when I stumbled across an article in Globes, an Israeli business newspaper, detailing the opening of a new Digital Division office of Ladbrokes in Tel Aviv. According to the article the new Tel Aviv office has cost some 100 people in the UK their jobs, having been outsourced to Israel, where a number of online gaming entities are opening new offices.
The new Ladbrokes office opened on May 1, 2013, and came after Ladbrokes signed a five-year agreement with PlayTech; an agreement that had been put on hold for years due to PlayTech’s former partnership with Ladbrokes chief rival William Hill –this partnership came to an end just a few months ago, which is a story we brought you in a previous installment of Around Online Poker.
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