World Series of Poker and its sponsor DraftKings have decided to put their relationship on hold in light of the recent announcement from Nevada Gaming that Daily Fantasy Sports is gambling and therefore banned in the state.
World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) juggernaut DraftKings have distanced themselves after the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) advised all DFS sites to cease offering business in the state a fortnight ago.
Seth Palansky, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Caesars Entertainment/World Series of Poker, issued a statement confirming that DraftKings had asked WSOP to ‘cease any sponsorship activities around the remaining few WSOP events of the year’ and that they had complied.
DraftKings were the most prominent sponsor during the 2015 WSOP in the summer. They set up shop on the main stage of the Rio Pavilion, and also sponsored Event #55: DraftKings 50/50 No-Limit Hold’em, where 50% of the field made the money.
Their presence at the WSOP Main Event Final Table would have been omnipresent. November Niner Max Steinberg qualified for his $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat on DraftKings and would have no doubt been patched up to the hilt, notwithstanding the advertising surrounding the Mothership and throughout televised coverage.
Dan Cypra at Pocketfives unearthed the news that DraftKings advertising has been removed from WSOP.com’s Twitch channel in favour of PlayWSOP.com advertising, although the DFS site continues to run qualifiers for the upcoming World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal festival.
DFS also sponsor Twitch sensation Jason Somerville, and it will be interesting to see whether DraftKings continues to keep their powder dry by also putting some distance between themselves and the PokerStars Team Pro.
While the current difficulties being experienced by the DFS industry may come as a shock to some, it has not come as a shock to CalvinAyre.com.
Back on May, 14, Bill Beatty predicted that something like this would happen when he wrote.
“The similarities between the rise of online poker and the daily fantasy sports industry is eerie. Both are clearly gambling; both are touted as games of skill rather than luck and both piss off the powers that be who would rather have a say on how allegedly free Americans can spend their entertainment dollars.”
I always knew there was a crystal-like quality to that man’s balls.
