An Open Letter to the Poker Community from WPT Founder, Steven Lipscomb:
As
I take stock of all the things we have to be thankful for in the
holiday season, I find it appropriate and necessary to share some
thoughts with the poker community at large. Firmly believing that
people will, in the end, be judged by their actions, I have long made
it a policy at the World Poker Tour to let our actions speak for
themselves. The persistence of widely disseminated misinformation
regarding a number of things has prompted me to break with that
tradition today.
I want to first state that the relationship between the WPT and our
players is one of paramount importance to us. Neither the WPT nor the
players would be enjoying the extraordinary success we have seen over
the last three years without each other. It is essential that we all
respect and appreciate what the players, the WPT casinos and the WPT
staff have brought to the table in creating this new world of poker. We
truly value the relationship we continue to have with our players and
see it as a two-way street. We encourage players to bring their
concerns directly to us in the effort to ensure a healthy, positive and
fruitful relationship and we will continue to attempt to address those
issues as quickly as possible. To help facilitate communication, we are
launching a For Players Only portion of our website early next year,
designed to foster information exchange and dialogue directly with WPT
players. Players should make sure we have current email information so
we can send them a Players Only password.
That being said, I would like to focus on the issues that have
caused unnecessary concern in order to help put them in perspective.
FILMING RELEASES:
The latest hot button issue seems to be the filming release we
require players to sign before they play in World Poker Tour events.
The release we utilize is a standard filming release that all
production companies must have signed by everyone they film or the
television broadcaster will refuse to air our material. Filming
releases are always broadly drafted to protect against frivolous law
suits. The language is clear. The production company can use all the
footage it shoots and the persons image in all media.
But, the story does not end there. The World Poker Tour is a
business. We value our relationship with WPT players and have always
acted with great care and deference when using player images. The few
players now trying to stir up controversy around player releases are
lost in hypotheticals not reality.
A perfect example occurred recently. Without my approval, a banner
ad featuring three prominent players was used by a WPT affiliate to
drive people to our online poker site. Within an hour of hearing about
the ad, I had it removed not because we were legally obligated to, but
because the players asked us to and we take their concerns seriously.
We have always acted this way as a matter of course. But, I am happy
to go on record today to promise the poker community that we will
always listen to a player who feels that he or she is uncomfortable
with how we use their image. If we feel we can or should, we will
modify or eliminate that use. And, if not, we will explain, to the best
of our ability, why not. What I cannot do is subject WPTE to endless
lawsuits by severely restricting the rights we obtain in our filming
release. No credible production company could or would do so. And, it
is in the interest of all poker players for the WPT to be focusing its
efforts and resources on growing poker into one of the largest sports
in the world rather than defending an endless line of frivolous
lawsuits.
I challenge the poker community to be very cautious about accepting
misinformation without looking further. I am convinced that, if people
take the time to investigate how the World Poker Tour has acted, they
will agree that we should be commended as a company for the way we have
handled this issue and the way we listen and respond to players in
general.
One more thing. The few players trying to make this a wedge issue
want people to believe that players may lose endorsement opportunities
because of signing WPT or ESPN film releases. Once again, this is not a
real concern, but a remote hypothetical. You need to ask if any player
has lost an endorsement deal because of WPT, ESPN, FOX, etc. filming
releases. The answer is there are none. Players should always let
potential sponsors know that they have signed the industry-standard,
filming release that makes it possible for them to be on television and
therefore be of value to the sponsor. Sponsors and manufacturers deal
with these circumstances all the time on every television show from
Survivor to Seinfeld. If you are lucky enough to have your television
poker exposure make you a star worthy of endorsement contracts, the
release will not impede that process.
And, finally, players who have played in any WPT events over the
last three and a half years have already signed a release. That means
that signing a release at the next hundred or a thousand WPT
tournaments will have no effect of committing them any more than they
are already committed.
THE WORLD POKER TOUR HAS YET TO TURN A PROFIT:
Another rampant misunderstanding in the poker community is that the
World Poker Tour or WPT Enterprises (WPTE) is making massive profits
and is somehow the evil empire that refuses to spread the wealth.
Nothing could be further from the truth. WPTE has been in business for
four years and has yet to turn a profit. We continue to invest in what
we believe will be the bright future of poker and the league that
launched poker as a sport. And we, more than any institution in the
business, have taken and continue to take steps to grow the poker world
in general to benefit players and the broader community. Just a few
examples:
- In our second season, we launched and funded the first
player management company in history, not because we thought it would
make us money, but because we wanted to foster relationships and build
opportunities for players. We passed that organization on to Brian
Balsbaugh who has managed to make meaningful sponsorship deals a
reality for an ever-growing group of players.
- In Season III, we fulfilled the dream of many people in the poker
community by launching and funding the first professional poker league
in the history of the sport, giving $2.5 million dollars away prior to
securing a broadcast deal. As many of you know, we have yet to receive
any return of that investment.
- In 2004 we invited all poker players and the general public to
become investors in the WPT at a very early stage to give everyone an
opportunity to benefit from our future growth.
- In Season IV, the WPT lobbied the Travel Channel on behalf of
players and secured a change in the logo policy to allow pre-approved
logos at WPT final tables.
In a broader sense, it is the World Poker Tour, its staff and casino
partners that have made this poker boom possible. Every player that
commentates on a rival TV show, every player that wins a million dollar
first prize, every player that participates in or endorses an online
poker room, every player that sits down in a packed poker room full of
new players benefits from the World Poker Tour. Some people seem to
forget that just three years ago you had to wait a year to get a shot
at a million dollar first prize tournament. Poker rooms were being shut
down across the country and industry leaders were holding conferences
seeking ways to save a dying business. People forget that the biggest
five and ten thousand dollar buy-in events had thirty to sixty people
in them not the six to nine hundred players you see today. A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY
A tremendous land of opportunity has been created and opened to the
poker community by the World Poker Tour and the other poker shows it
has spawned. Poker rooms across the country are making money as they
never imagined they could or would. Online poker has exploded from a
two hundred million dollar market to a three billion dollar market by
associating with the WPT and other television shows. And, whereas no
one wanted to put regularly scheduled poker on television in the U.S.
in 2001/2002, at least fifteen shows are currently airing in the U.S.
copying the WPT format.
There are a lot of people making money
in the poker market today. Most of those opportunities did not exist
prior to the World Poker Tour. The three founders of Party Gaming
cashed out over a billion dollars from their business this year.
Estimates are that Full Tilt Poker, owned and launched by A-list poker
players, is making hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, millions of
dollars a month. Poker players are being paid for appearances, they are
endorsing products and poker sites and they are even beginning to crack
the difficult layers of legitimate corporate sponsorship. Free-roll
television shows totaling millions of dollars in prize money are being
announced monthly and new poker interest shows are being produced as
well.
THE WORLD POKER TOUR
The World Poker Tour is excited by all of this and no one is happier
than Lyle Berman or me when players do well and manage to cash in on
the poker boom. But, with all the money being made, the poker community
should be aware that the guy who put up millions of dollars to change
the poker world Mr. Lyle Berman has, to date, not made a cent. He has
never drawn a salary and, as of today, he and Lakes Entertainment have
not sold one share of World Poker Tour stock. Their investment has
appreciated, but I can not imagine that poker players or the poker
community begrudge him that any more than they would expect Party
Gamings investors or the Full Tilt players to redistribute their
profits.
For my own part, all my compensation is a matter of public record.
And, to quote the wife of one of our WPT Champions, I've seen what you
made to launch this business and no poker player would have done it for
that. I wouldn't have done it. As to my stock in the company, I have
sold less than twenty percent of my ownership and continue to believe
and invest in the future growth of poker and the World Poker Tour.
WE ARE AN OPEN BOOK, PLEASE COME READ US
As a public company, all of this information is easily assessable on
any search engine: YAHOO! Finance, CNN Business, Motley Fool, MSNBC,
etc. I encourage members of the poker community to look at our company
information. Under the watchful eye of the Securities and Exchange
Commission, we report how much money the company makes, how much it
spends, how much executives are paid and even how much stock, if any,
those executives sell. Lyle can attest to the fact that we have yet to
turn a profit. He made a $10,000 bet with another poker player when the
World Poker Tour began that the company would turn a profit sometime in
the first five years. To date, he has not been able to collect on that
bet.
THE WPT AND THE POKER COMMUNITY
I guess I would like to ask the poker community in general and the
poker player community in particular to help us keep focused on the
task at hand which is to grow poker into the largest global sports
phenomenon in history. I ask that you judge us by what we do and look
beyond rumor. Seek the truth; don't just accept misinformation as
gospel. While individual players may have their own motivation for
spreading misinformation about the WPT or anyone else in our community,
keep an open mind and look for the reality. Everyone has his/her own
agenda and we are no exception to that rule. But, our incentives tend
to align with the growth of poker as a sport that will continue to
bring benefit to everyone in the community.
I appreciate your taking time to digest these thoughts. Together we
have managed to change the face of poker forever. Together we have
managed to dispel the perception that poker could never be a sport. We
look forward to working together in 2006 to find new ways that we can
grow the poker world together. And, on behalf of Lyle, Robyn and
everyone at the World Poker Tour, we wish a safe and joyous holiday
season to you and yours. We truly feel blessed to be a part of this
exciting time in poker.
Regards,
Steve