We put this one to WSOP bracelet winner and Kill Phil author Blair Rodman, who's had plenty of personal experience in this matter. Take it, Blair.
Sponsorships at the WSOP Main Event can be a bit tricky. During the early days of the event, the sites will often offer players on the primary and secondary TV tables (the ones with the hole-card cams) money to wear their gear for the day. It’s generally a one-time deal with no provisions obligating either side further into the tournament. Amounts can vary, but it’s usually in the $10,000 range, with more being paid for the primary table. The money is deposited in the player’s account at the sponsoring site. As the field gets shorter, deals will involve more money and will sometimes include a provision that if the player reaches higher plateaux, up to and including the final table, he will receive performance bonuses. A player I know got $12,000 for the secondary TV table and was never even shown on TV! Conversely, Phil Ivey’s refusal to appear on ESPN’s featured tables in the 2009 Main Event cost TV money and exposure to his fellow players, when ESPN simply switched the TV tables.
As the field gets whittled down, the stakes increase. When the field was at 64 players, in addition to focusing on playing poker, I had to deal with the agents who were swarming around. I was approached by an agency that wanted to sign me to a deal that obligated me through the end of the year. I didn’t like the sound of it and my lawyer confirmed that I shouldn’t sign. I talked to an agent I know at Poker Royalty, the primary player agency in the U.S., who told me I could sign then for a relatively small amount, but it would behoove me to wait and see if I made the final 27, at which point I could probably get a six-figure offer, which would include some obligation and bonuses should I make the final table or win the title. To complicate things further, new rules instituted by Harrah’s limit the number of final-table players who can be sponsored by a particular site to three. I opted to wait, and unfortunately came up a bit short, going out 34th. Antonio Esfandiari took the same route, and made it to the final 27, when he signed with Doyle’s Room.
Deals can be structured in many different ways. As for Joe Cada, his arrangement with UB was a one-day deal that didn’t obligate him for the final table and beyond. Once he reached the final table, he was free to shop around and settled on PokerStars, with whom he signed a one-year $1 million deal. Whether he was signed to that deal before or after he won remains unclear, but it was likely after, since no one but Cada got a long-term deal from PokerStars.
