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10 years after the first boom, Poker has now reached 100 million fans and grown to become an almost $4 billion industry around the world. Last year, for the first time, more than $1 Billion was spent on buy-ins by live players in poker tournaments aggregated by the Global Poker Index (GPI) across 94 countries.
In 2013 – counting competition winnings without sponsorship revenues – the top 10 golfers in the PGA earned $52 Million; the top 10 ATP tennis players together earned $48 Million, while the top 10 GPI ranked poker players earned $47 Million.
The Poker industry has achieved incredible results recently in terms of global recognition and social media outreach – poker pros have garnered anywhere between dozen of thousands to one million plus Twitter followers – but it has yet to connect mainstream brands, consumers to the game en masse. A central reason: Sports Marketing Agencies and Media Agencies have not yet been educated enough about Poker’s potential and the power of its image.
My Group, Zokay Sports & Entertainment – which owns GPI along with TheHendonMob.com and other properties- is invested in turning Poker into a Sports League, disrupting the industry by transforming it into an efficient marketing vehicle. So, with that in mind, let’s expose the answers to some relevant questions with a few facts:
Should Poker be promoted as a Sport?
21.1% of the valuable 18 to 24 year old male demographic feels that Poker should indeed be promoted as a Sport. Already a significant proportion, this figure is set to increase dramatically over the next few years with the aide of investments made by poker companies such as Pokerstars and PartyPoker.
Is Poker really an accepted mainstream game?
Yes. More than 1 in 4 people currently either play the game or know someone who does, and more than half of all people under the age of 35 either play Poker themselves or know someone who does.
Does it harm Celebrities and Athletes to be seen publicly playing poker?
A number of International Athletes – already very bankable – have publicly shown their interest in poker including Ronaldo, Paul Pierce, Michael Phelps, Georges St. Pierre, and Neymar among others, while other modern sports icons have become affiliated with the game more formally such as PokerStars ambassadors Rafael Nadal and Boris Becker.
Whole sports franchises have partnered with the game as well, with PartyPoker inking deals with Real Madrid and Manchester United in Europe, and the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) and New Jersey Devils (NHL) in the U.S.
In fact among all polled audiences, only 10.7% did not feel it would be good for Celebrities and Athletes to be publicly seen playing poker or be connected with the Poker Industry. This number falls to only 2.5% for the 25-34 year old demographic, 25% of whom also considered poker a legitimate sport.
Let’s disrupt Poker Media distribution: Don’t try to bring people to poker, bring poker to the people instead.
22.5% of all visitors – and 34.9% of visitors aged 18-24 who frequent prominent Sports Sites – (such as CBSSports.com, ESPN.com, FOXSports.com, …) are actively interested in reading Poker News/ Content and being educated about Poker as a sport.
Sports websites will become the main channel for connecting consumer brands and the poker world. That’s why GPI is empowering them to inform, educate, and monetize their audiences.
Poker fans are a target, and Poker players too
Audience analysis form GPI’s website network shows that poker-interested visitors are 5.5 times more likely to show interest in Sports News, 3.2 times more likely to show interest in Computer and Technology, and 3.5 times more likely to be interested in Entertainment News than the average web visitor.
Our (GPIs) visitor base skews heavily towards 25-34 and 35-44 age demographics, and male. Higher income households are over-represented as well with our visitors being 15% more likely to have $100-$150k yearly incomes than average, and 36% more likely to have $150k+ yearly incomes than average.
Poker to embrace Sports Marketing (and vice-versa)
We are at the eve of a new poker boom, a industry rocket that’s being fueled by recent acquisitions and many incoming new ones. A new butterfly effect is under way, driven in part by institutional investors and the eminent re-emergence of the US market, that is exposing poker globally.
Now is the time to get the Sports Marketing industry and mainstream brands on board, and consider what our next move is. Regardless, I’m excited to have Zokay Sports & Entertainment and its Global Poker Index aim to be the industry backbone that makes these initiatives possible.
Alexandre Dreyfus
