Even though it's been two weeks since the biggest poker event of the year, it's still the number one topic on social media among players and fans alike. One of the latest debates started over the paid broadcast of the WSOP Main Event. As in previous years, you could watch the last final table of the Main Event in its entirety only if you paid a subscription to the American streaming platform PokerGo. This has sparked a debate in part of the community, with Alexandra Botez arguing that free streams are a good thing for the popularity and development of poker as such, but also for attracting new sponsors. Alexandra herself also played the WSOP Main Event this year, taking home $17,500 for 1,040th place. She expressed her opinion on Twitter:
Botez writes that such restrictions on broadcasts hinder poker's potential growth, and the game loses the opportunity to attract more fans and sponsors. She compared the situation in poker to boxing, where the number of followers has dropped from an incredible 2 billion to about 1 million over the past 50 years. "50 years ago, about half of the world's population watched a heavyweight title fight. Now even the biggest duels are watched by just over 1 million people. While I understand that PokerGo charges to stream the WSOP Main Event purely for profit, I think this is a short-sighted decision. Today's top boxers are making more money than ever before, but boxing has only a fraction of the cultural impact on society it once had - a trend that will be difficult to reverse."
Going back to around 2000, the WSOP Main Event was televised live on US ESPN in prime time and replayed throughout the year. ESPN was behind the popularization of poker, and in the United States you could feel that everyone was suddenly watching and playing poker. This also greatly contributed to the creation of the story called Chris Moneymaker and the associated poker boom.
Here we come to one of the arguments of those who disagree with Botez. According to some, the WSOP has become such a mass affair that it has become a lottery, so such promotion would no longer even make sense. Unlike the big names that have won the tournament before, it's probably safe to say that even the most serious poker players wouldn't be able to name the last 10 WSOP champions. Someone also pointed out in the comments that the stream was free from 2011 to 2017, but there was no further poker boom and fan base expansion.
According to another commenter, a public broadcast of the WSOP without a fee would not even attract potential sponsors: “People often mistakenly believe that having more viewers is always more profitable. Conversely - it's better to have 1 million people each paying $100 than 1 billion paying nothing - especially for one-time events. Sponsors will not pay extra to reach the 500 million people who have low "spending power". But they will pay extra to reach people who have the intention and the ability to spend.”
On the other hand, former Facebook CEO Chamath Palihapitiya agrees with Botez: "I agree with you 100%. The entire income of free sites is based on growing "audiences" and "lookalike audiences" and connecting them with core ones. The premise only works when the free content increases the number of users enough that when you monetize them, it's profitable and you can continue to do so. Google and Facebook's revenue suggests this maximizes value and works for most businesses and content creators. Poker should be broadcast to the widest possible audience so that as many people as possible can enjoy the game. Add quality commentary from @Ali_Nejad and @NickSchulman and you have a new Monday Night Football…”
In any case, while some fans have no problem paying for a final table stream, others believe it should be available to everyone for free. This has not been the case since the aforementioned year 2017, when the American streaming company PokerGo acquired the broadcast rights to it. It's almost certain that there will be no changes to the WSOP Main Event broadcast fees anytime soon, but PokerGo representatives are certainly watching the debate. The debate has sparked thoughts about the future and development of poker as a sport, let's see if it will bring any changes.
What is your view on this issue? Free or pay-per-view?
Let us know in the comments!
Source: PokerGo, Wiki, PokerNews, HighStakesDB, Reddit, Twitter, Brobible
