The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

I was quite intrigued to read that the World Poker Tour, one of the reasons poker has reached the popularity it has, will be heading to Niagara Falls the end of October for a televised event. Pretty cool. No, I can't enter, as the buy-in is probably somewhere along the $5,000-$10,000 mark. Still, just knowing Canada is taking part is pretty awesome and it will be neat to see a bunch of the poker pros making their way up here.

But, that all took a back seat when I heard that some top name professionals, such as the 2000, 2004 and 2005 World Series Main Event Champions Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem, have filed a lawsuit with four other pros against World Poker Tour Enterprises. At first, it seems ludicrous, but after hearing what the players have to say, I tend to agree with them.

The chance of another poker television program coming to your TV screen is reduced because the WPT has a clause for the casinos that they are not allowed to host any other type of televised poker tournament. This is simply a way to create a monopoly, and eliminate the competition. If WPT is the only choice available if all the top casinos agree to it, this reduces the amount of tournaments players can participate in and fewer choices for the TV audience. Only WPT wins with this clause.

The players themselves have no control over their likeness and name. Anything captured by a WPT camera can be used for profit/propaganda without requiring the players' approval. They could legally use someone's image to promote an entirely different product unrelated to WPT in any media. They could find themselves unwillingly, for example, endorsing a WPT product they do not believe in. And not even getting paid for it.

That last statement is important because poker players are unique as they have to buy-in to the tournaments that they play. No one plays for free. When you see a top pro like Daniel Negreanu make it to the final table, yes he's rich but he fronted the $10,000 buy-in himself to play. The WPT does not pay for anyone's appearances, the players do it themselves. When you hear the TV announcers rave about the multi-million top prize for the winner, that's all from the players who decided to play, none of it is from WPT.

It will be interesting to see how this lawsuit unravels. WPT Enterprises have already denounced the lawsuit and will fight it. The thing is, these poker pros who've decided to press legal action are already self-made millionaires and can live off their reputation alone. They can decide not to play any WPT events from here on in and still enjoy quite a sweet living. There are putting their reputations on the line without a real great reward for them at the end, and all this makes me side with the players in this anti-trust case.