Relevant terms:
16. Player is not permitted to play non-staked MTTs.
18. Should Player accidently register a non-staked game with Company funds, Player must deposit funds to cover this game within 2 days, assuming he does not cash. Any cashes will go toward the stake regardless. This prevents Company from being freerolled.
19. Using Company funds to play non-staked games and then replenishing the funds later is strictly prohibited. This is called floating. Player is to deposit first and play with their own funds, should they choose to play non-staked games.


Term #19 is put in place to allow the playing of SNGs and cash games.

Player deposits for a non-staked MTT and wins it. What happens?

Hard one, why does the player deposit rather than using the stake money? Is he in makeup? This just seems to me like it could be used as an angle, i.e i deposit to play the sunday million dont cash and say i used stake money, i win and i have proof of deposit and its all mine

Is this stated anywhere in the contract?

He is not in makeup.

He used his own funds to play an MTT we do not stake him for. He is not permitted to play MTT's we do not stake him for.

No, however term 16 listed above should cover this.

I don't think the following is important, but I'll just spew some thoughts to hopefully get a few more replies.

Term 16 is put in there because we invest over $100k per year in coaching. We don't want guys to get all this free coaching and then use it to play games for themselves. Secondly, everyone has a tendency to focus on their highest games. Having someone play their own games (which would be more important) alongside games we stake them for is not ideal.

Term 18 protects us from people "accidently" registering the Super Tuesday and freerolling us.

Term 19 allows an MTT player to play Cash and SNGs for themselves.

We recognize the language of our agreement is not 100% clear and it will need fixing going forward. However we're trying to present what we currently have in place and see what is correct to do in the situation we're in right now.

16 covers 19. i can see how the horse could be a tad confused because 16 and 19 are a bit counterintuitive. Question: would the tourney he played be covered in his list of approved tournies or not? i.e. he played the SM when he's backed for up to 55FO. Also, was there any contact from the horse with the backer asking for permission to play?

Honestly, you obviously have recourse because of the contract, but if he deposited money on his account and taking a shot with his money at a tourney that wasn't covered by the staking agreement, I think it would be really nitty of you to try to take whatever the agreed upon profit split is on this win. Yes, he broke rule 16, but he's somewhat covered in 19 and he certainly wasn't trying to scam you.

Guess it depends on how much you value this horse.

Is there anything stating what happens if Term 16 is infringed upon?

Term 18 is irrelevant here as from your description there was nothing accidental here.

Term 16 is clear obviously but Term 19, without the definition of what "non-staked games" are then is makes it ambiguous as it conflicts the terms, in theory would favor the horse in a legal sense.

In relation to your causes for Term 16 (avoid freerolling coaching, focusing on own games) - is this the first time the horse has done this, and has he been there long etc? It doesn't make much difference in black and white contract terms, but if he has been with you a while and not done this then it would suggest he isn't trying to freeroll coaching and focus on his own. His fault here is not informing or asking first I guess.

If he busted as well obviously no cost would come to the backers. Given the unclear contract, and this I think the profits would be the horses unless there are specific details on what happens if he breaks term 16.

random solution that wasn't really well thought out but just came to mind:

profit split right now (you said he's not in makeup)
let him keep the money from the tourney he just won
in order to make sure he doesn't freeroll the coaching, sign a new contract for x months/hands so he can't just use this win as an avenue to bounce.

We're going to say it's his, thank you for the feedback.

You should combine terms 16 & 19 so that there's no ambiguity. You can deposit and play SNGs/cash, but not MTTs.

Horse has deposited before playing and term 19 kind of says that although 16 & 19 are somewhat contradictory.

I think you did the right thing here letting him keep it.

Agree with all of this.