The World Poker Tour debuts March 30 at 7 p.m. on The Travel Channel with this marketing plan: "We're changing the whole image and perception of poker. We see it as a sport, not a bunch of guys in a smoky back room," according to Audrey Kania, the tour's senior vice president.
The effort includes 13 televised events this year with purses ranging from $250,000 to $3 million, live audiences and 16 cameras carrying the action.
The Travel Channel has paid the World Poker Tour a rights fee for the 13 events this year. Kania wouldn't disclose the fee but said it covers "a significant portion" of the tour's operating expenses. Profit, if it happens, will come from subsequent distribution overseas, which the World Poker Tour controls.
The Travel Channel is handling ad sales, and there are no tour sponsors this year, per agreement between the partners. Kania said it's not The Travel Channel's operating policy to have show sponsors. "We have a one-year deal with The Travel Channel," she said, "and in year two, depending on who we go with, we expect to incorporate sponsors."
After the Sunday night kickoff event, the two-hour, tape-delayed (and heavily edited for pace and drama) shows will air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Contestants pay between $5,000 and $25,000 to enter the events, and winners take home around 35 percent of the purses, which would amount to more than $1 million for the season-ending World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
To dispel the "smoky room" image, Kania said the contestants include computer geniuses, a Harvard-trained lawyer and a woman with a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology who is "a soccer mom by day and a high-stakes poker player by night."
The Travel Channel is spending $3 million initially to advertise the tour, with print ads, ad spots in sports and other heavily male programming via DirecTV and the Dish Network, and on video screens in theater lobbies around the country. Many events will take place at casinos, which will handle local promotion.
Kania said more money could be allocated to advertising, depending on results through the first few weeks of the season.
THRESHOLD CLOSE TO SIGNING CYCLING SPONSORS: Threshold Sports, which manages the 5-year-old Pro Cycling Tour, is close to two more large sponsorships for the tour, with a bottled-water maker and with a resort that would become the site of another event.
The six-race tour has Wachovia as title sponsor for four events, including the USPRO Championship in Philadelphia in June. BMC Software is presenting sponsor of the San Francisco Grand Prix and the New York Cycling Championships. The Philadelphia event had more than 500,000 spectators last year and the San Francisco event only slightly fewer. The three major events were televised on local ABC affiliates — Clear Channel Entertainment Television will handle television production this year — and the races had strong ratings.
Threshold CEO David Chauner said a title sponsorship for one of the major-market races costs between $1 million and $1.5 million. Events cost between $1.5 million and $2 million to put on.
HOOPS HOF ADDS PARTNERS: The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., has added several marketing partners in the last few months, including the Dodge Dealers of New England, which signed a multiyear deal valued in the mid-six figures. In all, the hall's seven sponsors have deals worth more than $1 million, with cash accounting for more than half of that, according to Steve Sullivan, director of marketing partnerships.
The deals range from three to seven years in length. In addition to the Dodge Dealers, Spalding Sports Worldwide and Huffy Sports are the official ball and backboard, respectively, and MBNA America is the official affinity credit card.
Aacer Flooring, maintenance products maker Hillyard Industries and Non Violent Toys are also sponsors.
Contact Noah Liberman at nliberman@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
