Quote:
Originally Posted by cockpit
Instead of comparing it to an ITF final you would do better to compare a WPT tournament to a tennis club championship. Little or no outside sponsors putting up big money. No public buying tickets. The only people with a vested interest in the outcome are the players. And it they want to cut a deal between or among themselves it really isn't anybody else's business.
How are there no sponsors? Are there no TV deals in place, are there no companies sponsoring the players’ attire? Sure nobody buys anything, but it has an audience and exposure.
A club tournament gets no outside views except those who attend, and maybe a small mention in a local paper. This gets worldwide coverage by several poker news outlets, and can be broadcast on TV (doesn’t seem to be, but could have easily been so), or at least by live play by play. What small club tournament in small town x gets that? It’s much more comparable to an ITF event, and if it had been a bigger prizepool with TV deals, even bigger.
Now aside from points, potentially messing up others’ propbets and anything of the like, there’s the fact that with any kind of “title” there comes a degree of prestige. Will these two advertise themselves as having “bought” a WPT title or having “won it”? The latter was not achieved, no matter how close they had got. It’s shady to be allowed to do that. Maybe it can entail some opportunities in the future, or he is able to dupe some people into coaching based on that “title” or he gets a local advertising deal etc.
It’s not that big of an issue cause “lolpokerz” and everyone is already so used to worse things from this industry that not many care, but the notion still stands. On top of that it’s just simply bad publicity for the WPT, but guess if they’re fine with it and the players don’t mind, sure who cares. I was just arguing a pedantic point about how it comes across as.