Can You Still Get an Online Poker Sponsorship Today?

Online poker experienced a big boom from 2003 to 2006. This time period saw the industry explode while money flowed into many poker sites. The surplus of revenue allowed internet poker rooms to spend big on advertising and marketing. Part of these marketing efforts involved signing numerous pros to sponsorship deals.

Some Full Tilt pros earned a seven-figure salary on top of having their live tourney buy-ins paid for. Even smaller sites got into the act by spending major money on sponsorship deals. DoylesRoom is one example, as they signed Chris Moorman, Steve Gross, and David “Doc” Sands. Obviously there’s value in having a famous poker pro represent your brand. But the enormous amount that sites were spending on these deals wasn’t worth it in most cases.

Prior to Black Friday, bigger online poker sites didn’t properly evaluate what they poured money into. The industry was booming and many sponsorship deals seemed to make sense. But major sites like PokerStars, Full Tilt, UB, and Absolute Poker were forced to vacate the US market after their owners were indicted on April 15, 2011.

The Southern District of New York Attorney’s Office indicted these companies’ owners on charges of money laundering and bank fraud. These poker rooms used shady payment processors to circumvent the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (2006), which had its own effect on the sponsorship mania five years prior. The online poker industry took a downturn following the events of Black Friday. The biggest sites were no longer drawing the revenue from the US market, which featured 330 million people.

Full Tilt, Absolute, and UB all closed around a year afterward. They couldn’t afford to repay their customers, let alone keep their countless sponsorship deals going. PokerStars has continued to maintain a large stable of pros in recent years. But Team PokerStars is still nowhere near its boom years height.

Legal events have reduced the number of available internet poker sponsorships. Furthermore, sites have realized that mindlessly paying pors to wear a patch isn’t effective marketing. But this isn’t to say that sponsored players are completely worthless in today’s poker world. Many sites still see the value that certain pros bring to the table.

Poker sites especially like a great player who can gain mainstream attention through TV and other avenues. Daniel Negreanu and Liv Boeree are two examples of pros that’ve experienced poker success and made a number of TV appearances.

The internet poker industry may not be thriving the same way it was a decade ago. But over a dozen sites are still pulling in lots of money from the game. Therefore, iPoker rooms are still willing to sponsor players under the right circumstances. You just need to meet the criteria they’re looking for in order to qualify.

Chances are that you don’t have the same popularity as Ronaldo. If so, you’ll be looking for a more practical way of getting a deal. Assuming you’re not a major celebrity, then you’ll definitely need to be really good at poker and have measurable results.

Again, you can’t rely on poker results alone to get signed. But this is one part of the equation, because sites don’t just sponsor any random Twitch streamer or YouTuber. After you become a good player, you need to stand out in other areas such as social media, Twitch streaming, having respect within the community, or outstanding poker accomplishments.

Jaime Staples and Jason Somerville have managed to earn lucrative sponsorship deals thanks to their numerous Twitch followers. Both do an excellent job of holding their audience’s attention through poker tips and discussions.

You can see that there are multiple routes towards getting a sponsorship deal. And there’s no easy way to get noticed and be signed. The players I’ve mentioned in this section have spent years playing the game and building their brand. Therefore, perseverance and hard work are keys to landing a deal.

The nature of a sponsorship deal can vary based on the site and player. But here are three possible perks of a deal:

• Tournament buy-ins covered
• Rakeback
• Salary

Keep in mind that a sponsored pro may only receive one or two of these benefits. But even receiving 100% rakeback at your favorite site or getting a few live tournament buy-ins covered can be valuable.

Much of what you receive for a sponsorship depends upon the site in question. Stars can afford to pay the most and offer the best benefits to its players. Most smaller poker sites can’t pay somebody a six-figure salary just to represent them. But they can cover a $10,000 WSOP Main Event buy-in or give a player up to 100% rakeback.

The demands of a sponsorship deal can vary. But one of the most common requirements involves wearing your sponsor’s patch during live events. Poker pros have been wearing patches for over a decade. These patches pay off if you make a deep run in a televised tourney, where more viewers will see you.

Certain deals may even require a pro to provide work for the site. This can be anything from advising the software development team on features that can improve players’ experience, or representing their site on forums. Overall, the demands of a sponsorship are usually worth it in comparison to the compensation.

Sponsorship deals were once important for prosto survive in the game. This was especially the case for live tournament pros during the boom years. Making it in live tourneys is extremely tough due to the large buy-ins and variance. You could toil away for years in these events before you’re finally able to notch a big score.

Online poker is available to most countries throughout the world. This allows anybody with enough funds and a bank account to start playing tournaments and cash games for real money. Of course, this isn’t to say that earlier sponsored pros couldn’t play online. But many players today realize that it’s easier to sit at home, save on travel costs, and build a bankroll without hitting the live circuit. Those who still want to compete in major live tourneys can do so much easier thanks to satellites. One can spend dollars or even pennies to work their way from a small satellite to an expensive WSOP seat.

Another benefit to playing over the internet is that there are plenty of major online tournament series available. Events like PokerStars’ Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), 888’s Super XL Series, partypoker’s POWERFEST, and PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) offer massive prize pools.

Don’t feel bad if you fail to meet the criteria that I covered before on earning a sponsorship. Very few players have the type of Twitch following, community acknowledgement, or celebrity status to get a deal. But this doesn’t mean that you have to entirely miss out on some of the benefits that sponsored pros receive. Online VIP programs give you the opportunity to collect rakeback, tournament tickets, freeroll tickets, and more.

If you have a favorite poker site beyond this group, then check out their VIP plan and see what’s available. Playing a high enough volume can lead to the type of bonuses that make it feel like you’re sponsored.