The Poker Beat - August 5

[Lon VanPatten]

The Big Game resumes on Monday, and they're taping new episodes for season 2 of the Million Dollar Challenge. That show was always scheduled to appear on Sundays when Fox didn't have a 2nd NFL game.

Harrah's and other casinos are limited in what they can promote on TV.

[DurkaDurkaDurka]

Welcome back Huff.

No trip report though?



DDD

[jh00k]

Originally Posted by DurkaDurkaDurka

No trip report though?

While a full report wasn't given, there was plenty of discussion of Huff's wedding and some of his honeymoon on 2 Jacks last night (4+ hours of awesomeness)

[TOCurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Lon VanPatten

The Big Game resumes on Monday, and they're taping new episodes for season 2 of the Million Dollar Challenge. That show was always scheduled to appear on Sundays when Fox didn't have a 2nd NFL game.

Harrah's and other casinos are limited in what they can promote on TV.

A recent interview with Barry Greenstein on Poker Static seems to confirm your knowledge of Stars TV plans.

Regarding casinos being limited in what they can promote; just another reason why matching FullTilt or PokerStars branding efforts will be difficult.

[Spartan]

Originally Posted by Lon VanPatten

Harrah's and other casinos are limited in what they can promote on TV.

Not just this, but even if you did manage to get your own show you can be sure FTP and stars would make sure their pros have all the patches they could find.

Is Harrah's restricted by some sort of NGC (or even federal) rule/law that makes so that they can't produce their own poker TV show?

[Donkalicious]

I could be wrong but I'm of the opinion that if a Harrah's stepped into the online market, which they obv. will once they are legally allowed too, they will dominate the U.S. market in time.

It would seem to me they would be able to offer much more in term's of rewards then the current online site's could, plus potentially restrict what Star's and Tilt could offer in terms of satty's. Which would attract a bunch of recreational player's i.e. fish to their site which in turn would bring in the current online grinder's to the site.

I mean yea in our poker world Star's and Tilt dominate in term's of marketing but I guarantee that if you took a poll of the general public of where those companies rank in terms of brand recognition with Harrah's and their properties Harrah's comes out on top by a wide margin. And this is without considering what type of advertising/marketing Harrrah's might do when they launch an online site.

Granted we also don't know if Star's/Tilt would be granted license's in the first place or if they are how much they step up their marketing either....regardless it will make for some interesting time's if/when this all takes place.

[Dan Michalski]

don't know the answers to those nv gaming regulations questions re: harrah's ... will try to find out. but just so you all know, Nevada Gaming is two entities:

GCB - the gaming control board
and NGC -- nevada gaming commission.

NGC sets the policies, GCB enforces/prosecutes them ... with NGC serving as Judge and jury.

there's more to it than that, and lots of strange overlap. but think from all this chat, GCB actually would be the group the licensees have to answer to.

[BJ Nemeth]

PokerStars and Full Tilt can run all the commercials they want during the WSOP (and other poker shows), but their brand recognition still pales in comparison to the WSOP.

Yes, they have built up strong brands, which have allowed them to distance themselves from the rest of the online poker sites. But if you test people outside the industry on brand recognition, the WSOP and the WPT absolutely crush every single online poker site.

Yes, the WPT is still a huge brand in mainstream America. Any time I wear a World Poker Tour shirt out in Atlanta, I get comments from random people (waitresses, checkout clerks, bank tellers, etc.) -- many of whom don't play poker themselves.

[Spartan]

Originally Posted by Dan Michalski

don't know the answers to those nv gaming regulations questions re: harrah's ... will try to find out. but just so you all know, Nevada Gaming is two entities:

GCB - the gaming control board
and NGC -- nevada gaming commission.

NGC sets the policies, GCB enforces/prosecutes them ... with NGC serving as Judge and jury.

there's more to it than that, and lots of strange overlap. but think from all this chat, GCB actually would be the group the licensees have to answer to.

Its posts like this that remind me just how much I need to learn in order to be able to say "hey, I work in this clusterf*ck of a field".

Originally Posted by BJ Nemeth

PokerStars and Full Tilt can run all the commercials they want during the WSOP (and other poker shows), but their brand recognition still pales in comparison to the WSOP.

Yes, they have built up strong brands, which have allowed them to distance themselves from the rest of the online poker sites. But if you test people outside the industry on brand recognition, the WSOP and the WPT absolutely crush every single online poker site.

Yes, the WPT is still a huge brand in mainstream America. Any time I wear a World Poker Tour shirt out in Atlanta, I get comments from random people (waitresses, checkout clerks, bank tellers, etc.) -- many of whom don't play poker themselves.

I think your point is one people don't want to hear. Not only does this mean the fish will flock to WSOP.com or a ClubWPT.com that doesnt suck, but it means that sites that we have grown to know and love could be pushed aside in favor of B&M casinos.

I think that what is likely to happen in a regulated online world is that Stars and Tilt (provided they get licenses) will get the early rush of players that already were playing to begin with, but as more players come into the market and go to what they know (in BJ's argument this would have to be WSOP.com), the migration would begin. It's weird to think of it this way, but Stars and Tilt could be regulated to second-tier status depending on how things go, or at the very least have a solid third competitor that could offer VIP rewards the online-only sites could only dream of.