888’s Sponsorship of Poker Night in America Is a Big Deal
As I detailed earlier this week, there will be a new poker show airing in the coming weeks.
The show, known as Poker Night in America, has been picked up by the CBS Sports Network for a 26-week run. Now the show has also picked up its first notable sponsor, as the 888-led All American Poker Network (specifically 888 Poker New Jersey) has decided to back the fledgling show.
In my previous column I noted how important it would be for US online poker rooms to get behind this show, and I’m ecstatic that 888 has already gotten the ball rolling. Hopefully other poker sites will follow suit.
Without rehashing my previous comments (You can read my complete thoughts on PNiA and how it could benefit the US poker market here: Poker Night in America: A Great Opportunity for NJ Online Poker), I want to touch upon why PNiA has such a great chance to succeed, especially now that it has a 26-week deal and a sponsor.
Poker Night in America was created by Heartland Poker Tour founder Todd Anderson. It is similar to other poker programming we have seen in the past.
Where PNiA differs, however, is that Todd Anderson and the other minds working on the project like Nolan Dalla have taken a little bit (hopefully the best) from televised tournaments, televised cash-games, and most importantly, a renewed focus on the fleshing out of the players back-stories.
Why The Back Story Is So Important
One of the most underrated aspects about ESPN’s 2003 WSOP coverage was their ability to humanize the players.
The back-story element was something that propelled the World Series of Poker to huge TV ratings in 2003 and beyond. While this element seems to have been lost in the shuffle over the years (less attention was paid to the players and more devoted to the hands/strategies as the poker audience became more nuanced) we did get a glimpse of how the human aspect of the players could still be used to create drama at a poker table when the PokerStars Big Game featured a lone amateur player facing off against a table full of sharks.
In one episode a player by the name of David Fischman who was up $130,000 decided to fold Pocket Aces pre-flop just to preserve his win (a decision that turned out to be an excellent choice as one of the pros flopped a set) and broke down in tears after the final hand was dealt and he booked a life altering win.
The stories were all sort of similar: people playing to send their kids to college, or to help with their mortgage payments. Normal people unaccustomed to high-stakes poker and the anxiety and drama that goes with betting thousands of dollars on the turn of a card.
Learning about these players’ humble roots (for the most part) and watching them try to weigh decisions for amounts of money they have never even seen before was incredibly dramatic, and had Black Friday not blown up the entire televised poker industry the PokerStars Big Game, with its incredible back-stories and drama-filled hands would have been a massive hit in my opinion.
888 Getting On Board Early Is a Big Deal For US Poker
With 888 hopping on as an official sponsor, the show not only has a good chance of being renewed (networks tends to like shows that come with built-in advertisers) but it will also apply pressure on the other US online poker rooms to buy their own TV time. Hopefully this will happen on a national level.
Why national when online gaming is only legal in Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada?
The reason is to get the word out about legal online poker in the US, the brands that are in the market, and hopefully end the consumer awareness issues currently being experienced in regulated markets. Also, to inform around the country where the average person knows very little about the fight to legalize online poker according to a Farleigh Dickinson survey.
While it would be nice to just focus on the New Jersey market, it hasn’t worked thus far, and since visitors to New Jersey can sign-up and play at the state’s regulated poker rooms the outreach efforts should be national – concentrated in New Jersey of course.
