Team Pokerstars Sports Stars

marketing genius?

2007 saw another cog added to the PokerStars marketing wheel. Flamboyant, six times tennis Grand Slam winner Boris Becker became part of Team PokerStars.

With a colourful personality and international fanbase, Becker possessed the marketing qualities to match his sporting prowess.

PokerStars also had a vested interest in the German community, with its connection to the Intellipoker training site and sponsorship of the EPT Dortmund.

Becker’s signature made perfect marketing sense. His squeaky clean image and profession helped elevate poker’s status as a genuine sport, and struck a blow to the cynics who accuse poker of being another form of degenerate gambling. By correlating poker with tennis, it gave the game a newfound legitimacy.

Unfortunately, Becker’s poker career hasn’t exactly flourished. His cheery demeanour and willingness to give interviews can’t hide his mediocre tournament record. In three years, Becker has managed just three cashes – his highest the $40,885 he received for coming 40th at the WPT $25k Five Star Poker Classic.

Becker’s lack of success has inevitably drawn criticism from more cynical quarters. Why should he receive sponsorship and paid tournament entry, just for being famous?

Not that PokerStars really cares, though. After all, Becker’s signature symbolised a marketing trick to try and attract new players, not satisfy existing ones. PokerStars has since compiled a diverse roster of sports stars.

Iconic French rugby beast Sebastien Chabal is joined by fellow countryman and tennis player Gael Monfils. Swedish NHL legend Mats Sundin appeals to American ice hockey fans, whereas the glamorous Fatima Moreira de Melo is highly revered in Holland for her field hockey exploits.

Powerboat racer Sami Selio represents a more curious choice, but he is well known in the poker loving country of Finland. Meanwhile English football great and treble winner Teddy Sheringham is listed in ‘friends of PokerStars’. Sheringham boasts an impressive poker resume, with highlights including a 14th place finish at the £10k WSOP Europe Championship Event.

Irrespective of the criticism, the ‘sports roster’ marketing ploy may be a great overall thing for poker. The logic is simple – attract sports stars to the game, and you help elevate the game of poker as a sport. Just a few months ago, poker was internationally recognised as a mind sport, meaning it will feature in the World Mind Spots Games alongside the 2012 London Olympics.

The U.S. government recently took a major step to legalising poker, when an act agreeing the regulation of online poker was passed in the House Financial Services Committee. This symbolised a bitter blow to the UIGEA, and should the act be ratified by the full House and Senate, poker sites will be lawfully allowed to accept bets placed by Americans.

Even in France, where the government has been making moves to regulate and restrict access to online poker, PokerStars secured a license to operate a site (PokerStars.fr). It would be presumptuous to link changing attitudes to poker with the emergence of the PokerStars Sports roster, but Sebastian Chabal and Gael Monfils are highly respected figures in France.

Although the PokerStars sports stars roster may have little to do with poker, it is still a commendable marketing stunt. Be it actor or sports star, any global name attached to a poker site gives the game more credibility. Let’s hope Boris Becker continues to serve all the aces in poker.

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