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Outside-Poker Sponsors Show Promise Except One

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

As poker entered 2022, it did so with some new sponsorship deals on deck. Of course, there were two high-profile ambassador deals – Steve Aoki with the World Poker Tour and Chris Eubank Jr with 888poker. There were some other partnerships, though, between poker companies and non-poker-related businesses.

Most of them appear to be working out.

PokerStars and Red Bull Racing

In January, PokerStars and Red Bull Racing announced an exclusive, multi-year partnership. Racing suits and the racecar (named RB18) will feature the PokerStars logo. On the other side of the deal, PokerStars will feature some Formula One-focused promotions and content. There will be competitions and “experiences,” and they will span the PokerStars platforms, including online casino, poker, and sports betting.

The goal of the deal is to find crossover audiences. Both companies feel that some of their fans share similar passions and interests.

Dan Taylor, Flutter International CEO (PokerStars’ parent company), called the partnership an ideal fit. “Part of our vision for PokerStars is to create the world’s most epic casino, built on player experiences, giving our community moments they’ll never forget. Red Bull Racing’s phenomenal success is built on their bold, innovative, and passionate ethos, which has led to incredible success both on the track and in becoming one of the world’s most popular sports brands.”

Red Bull Racing Team Principal and CEO added, “We are pleased to welcome PokerStars to the Team as F1 enjoys a period of growth in new and existing territories and look forward to getting the 2022 season underway together.”

Speaking of the Formula 1 season, testing begins later in February – in Spain February 23-25 and Bahrain March 10-12. That will lead up to Round 1 in Bahrain March 18-20. From there, the action goes to Saudi Arabia, Australia, Italy, the United States (Miami, Florida), Monaco, and many other locations around the world. The full season is on the Formula 1 website.

PokerGO and StormX

It’s almost becoming commonplace for poker entities to partner with a cryptocurrency. However, with so many from which to choose, it was a big deal for PokerGO to choose StormX. The logo for the global cryptocurrency cashback app immediately appeared on poker table felt in the PokerGO Studio. It started with the Stairway to Millions in mid-January. There will be more branding opportunities, as StormX is now a PokerGO premier sponsor.

Cryptocurrency has been popular among poker players for years. That popularity continues to increase. StormX CEO and cofounder Simon Yu noted, “The popularity of poker is widely embraced within cryptocurrency communities. We partnered with industry leader PokerGO to help increase the brand position of StormX as we strive to reach new users and further the advancement of crypto.”

They plan to offer sweepstakes and giveaways in the future. The first event featuring the partners, though, is already on the calendar for March 3, 2022.

The first StormX Invitational Poker Tournament will feature 81 players as it stands now, which puts the prize pool at $405K. (The buy-in is $5K each.) However, the goal is to increase that amount to $500K. From the world of poker, big names have already committed:

Tom Dwan

Phil Hellmuth

Maria Ho

Nick Shulman

Matt Berkey

David Williams

From the world of sports, these names appear on the list:

Paul Pierce (NBA)

Michael Carter-Williams (NBA)

Landon Cassill (NASCAR)

Tyler Adkinson (MLB)

Bruce Buffer (UFC announcer)

From other celebrity-type worlds, these people will play:

Chumlee (reality TV personality)

Amber Arbucci (model)

DJ Crypto (YouTuber)

Sholi Goodman (celebrity attorney)

The rest of the list includes many names from the world of business, such as Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, Simon Yu and Matthew Chuen from StormX, along with investors and executives at capital firms and crypto companies.

Winamax and FC Bordeaux (or Not)

French online poker and sportsbetting provider Winamax was no stranger to working with football teams in Europe, specifically in the company’s home country of France. In August 2021, Winamax didn’t just sign on as a sponsor of Football Club (FC) Girondins de Bordeaux, they became the principal shirt sponsor. After the Winamax logo was on the jerseys from 2015 to 2019, they stepped it up in 2021 as the primary sponsor for the new three-year deal.

The new season started on August 6.

The football club ended the sponsorship in January 2022.

As for the club’s record, it wasn’t good. They were in 19th place in the league. And the person(s) in charge of the Winamax Twitter account was not pleased about the club’s performance. For months, that social media account disparaged the team, mocking them and criticizing nearly everything about their performances. Girondins Managing Director Thomas Jacquemier finally had enough.

On January 14, he tweeted a picture of the shirt without the Winamax logo and wrote, “We are terminating our partnership with Winamax whose communication had become dissociated from the spirit of the club.” Winamax had something to say about that, too:

Winamax continued the tweets denigrating the team. They pointed out that the club had only three wins in 20 games and conceded 44 goals. They posted mocking videos like this:

In sum, that deal is over.

 

 

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