I've wondered for a long time now what being a sponsored pro really means.

What do sponsorship deals involve? Is it usually just an annual salary, or buy-ins for larger, televised events? Or a mixture of both?

Is each individual on Stars and Full Tilt, for example, on their own unique contract stipulations? Or is there just a tier of what the sites will pay for for different levels of 'Team Pros'?

Does anyone know which pros have the best deals with their respective online sites, or what a typical deal is?

Lastly, how valuable are some of these sponsored pros to their sites? Do they really generate that much more income to justify their expense? Are some of them 'loss leaders' - just players who have one big tournament and may not be particularly good, but encourage your average amateur flocks to the site to be like them?

Thoughts?

for most sponsored players they get their buyin paid IF the tournament is telivised.

for a big name pro ie Annette_15, she gets all of her buyins in Europe covered and travel covered.

i think that's what i heard on pokerroad radio.

I've wondered this as well. Do the sponsored pros get to keep all of their tournament winnings, or do they need to give a portion back to their sponsor?

I do know that Greg Raymer gets an annual salary from stars. No idea about the others.

I'm also curious to know if full tilt red pros get a stake in the company.

ONly team full tilt gets a stake in the company

the pros just get an hourly wage plus 100% rb

Is the hourly wage determined by your volume on full tilt?

Well, it's certainly not by WINNINGS! I played against a red pro in a tournament yesterday who had a -61% ROI.

this what i can remeber from years of reading on this fourm.....

I do beleive that each "Red Pro" has thier own "deal" with FTP. the terms of which Obv are not public, but i am pretty sure that they all get 100% rakeback& some sort of hourly rate, and not a Yearly salary. Some of the Pros are part owners in the site, and who they are is pretty well documented. i am sure that they all get there Tourney buyins paid for televised tournaments, i did hear(or read)that some of them are considered staking deals and some percentage of their winings are paid back to FTP. i do beleive that some of them are required to play a certain amount of hands top receive thier 100% rakeback, also i read that some of the travel is coverd , and some is not.

take this info for what you think its worth as i have no Insider Knowlage of any of this its just what ive read from others.

I think Phil ivey has the biggest stake in Full Tilt along with Howard Lederer

and this answers OP's question how??

Stars pros get 500k in buyins afaik
Most tilt red pros get 100% rb + $35/hr while playing. Some have signed deals for $x monthly on top of that. I havent heard of any ft staking things

Ive heard betfair pros get 200k in buyins

and it's wrong


I guess Negreanu gets paid everything, some only get hourly + rakeback, it depends ldo.

obv the online pros at tilt(the ones in red who aren't in the commercials) have a good deal as they would be playing anyway and now get the bonus of extra cash and rakeback

for the tourney players it seems that stars' deal about the buyins is fantastic(obv the tilt pros wouldn't mind it too)

from what i ve heard matusow say, the deals only prevent the players from playing under their "name" (whether real or well known screenname) at other sites He was talking in an interview about playing on several different sites and playing with hellmuth on a site other than ub

While I'm sure Ivey has a very considerable portion of FT, which may even get bigger, I imagine Chris Ferguson still has a larger stake than Ivey, considering Ferguson wrote the initial version of the software and was a founder with Lederer and Gordon.



Also, I posted a thread about these sponsorships which you may find interesting.


thread------> http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...-poker-521951/

That's not too shabby, I could handle that to start some momentum.

Breaking Down Full Tilt Poker Sponsorship Deals

http://www.texasholdem-king.com/what...ship-deal-155/