888Poker sign November Niner Bruno Foster Politano in a move that will see the blue carpet rolled out further into the poker mad country of Brazil.
Whilst the majority of the November Nine will tread the red carpet en route to their seat at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Final Table, Bruno Foster Politano will be treading over a blue one.
The Brazilian has been signed by 888Poker and will act as an ambassador alongside Bruno Kawauti and Nicolau Villa-Lobos as the faces of 888Poker in the burgeoning poker hotbed of Brazil.
I’m honored to announce that I’m now part of the #team888 Brazil. @nicolauvl and @brunokawauti we are now Brazilians family #888poker
— Bruno Foster (@foster18) August 18, 2014
The man with the shortest stack at the final table is an interesting choice of ambassador. When you compare his online and live tournament scores against the rest of the Global Poker Index (GPI), you can, at best, say they are average; so he hasn’t been hired based purely on his ability.
Instead, it’s pretty obvious that 888Poker want to increase their brand awareness in Latin America, and continue to ride the wave that saw the PokerStars Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) attract 2,131 players in Sao Paolo last November (a PokerStars record that has only just been eclipsed in Barcelona this week).
The signing of Politano flies in the face of the marketing strategy of PokerStars, who recently chose to end affiliations with 50% of their Latin American team, with Angel Guillen, Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero and Humberto Brenes failing to secure contract renewals.
The 888Poker website shows Politano as an ‘Ambassador’ alongside recent recruits Sofia Lovgren, Xuan Liu, the legendary cricketer Shane Warne and last years November Nine appointment JC Tran.
The signing comes barely a month after 888Poker dropped their association with the ‘shark’ Luis Suarez, after the Uruguayan destroyed all of the excitement created by his appointment, when he took a bite out of the shoulder of the Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
888Poker were obviously worried about the negative energy that Suarez would bring to the 888Poker brand after his act of cannibalism. A view that was not shared by Barcelona FC who duly paid £75m to acquire his services from Liverpool.
