When it first appeared, fans flocked to the television to watch the world's best poker players and the world's biggest chumps vie for huge pots on the World Poker Tour (NASDAQ: WPTE). Unfortunately, one of the biggest losers walking away from the table now is the World Poker Tour itself, having turned a table stake at one time estimated at $500 million into chump change. Last week, the company announced that it had reached agreement to sell all its rights and operations for slightly over $9 million, plus a share of future profits, to Gamynia Enterprises, a privately held company.
According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), WPT was a victim of its own success. Given the eagerness of the gaming industry to popularize its products, there was no shortage of funds to sponsor poker broadcasts. And the low cost of producing such entertainment meant that any idiot could set up a camera and create a show (and many did). At one time, poker was on television more often than Billy Mays.
WPT is credited with creating a boom in the popularity of poker, which a year after it began broadcasting on ESPN in 2003 had grown to 50-80 million U.S. players. The enthusiasm for the game by stars such as Ben Affleck and James Woods also helped keep the game rolling. The advent of Internet poker has sucked away some of the house participants, though, and many industry experts feel the number of participants in poker overall has waned since 2005.
Gamyina, in partnership with Hardway Investments Ltd., hopes to spin the brand into online gambling green. With its money, WPT plans to fold its hand and walk away from the gambling table for a more dependable gig, as yet unnamed. This is a wise decision -- when you can't make money as the house, you shouldn't be in the business.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-12-2009 @ 7:56AM
SouthernMan said...
If you look at the dufus sitting in the picture above you get the real clue why the telvising of the WPT events went sour...add to that it seemed as if the "insider pros" were getting the huge payouts and then there was the average Joe player the show was suppose to be about just lacked authenticity that made the whole gig just that...a gig.