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WPT Creates New Marketing Wing Led by Blum

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

The World Poker Tour has been through a few things in 2021. On one hand, the company worked hard to reenter the live tournament realm in the post-Covid era, working with casinos and card rooms but navigating state health mandates along the way. On the other hand, the WPT was at the center of a bidding war and ultimately sold to Element Partners.

Many people wondered what the sale would mean. (Okay, I wondered, but I’m sure someone else did, too.) Other than redoing some legal documents and maybe ordering new business cards, it is unclear what tangible changes would take place within the World Poker Tour.* One thing soon became clear, though. The World Poker Tour going private after so long meant that it could make more of its own decisions.

And the first one of those decisions that the public will see came to light this week in the form of a newly restructured marketing department. And longtime WPT family member Hermance Blum will lead it.

Complete Marketing Overhaul

The World Poker Tour decided to completely renovate its marketing department. And to kick things off, they promoted former WPT Europe Vice President Hermance Blum to VP of Marketing for the entire company.

As one of her first moves, Blum created two new roles at the World Poker Tour. Both began on September 1.

One was that of Social Content Director, a role that will oversee all social media operations. And to fill that role, Blum promoted Lynn Gilmartin. The new parent has been working from her native Australia and will balance her new WPT role with that of anchor. She will still work the televised tournaments with Vince Van Patten and Tony Dunst and appear in videos and snippets for WPT events and ClubWPT. At the same time, she will be doing more work behind the scenes as the director of social content.

https://twitter.com/LynnGilmartin/status/1427116042619293697?s=20

The other new role was Director of Media and Player Communications. Many company executives seemed to have played that role in the past, all stepping up at events to handle player needs. This move puts one person in that position. And that person is Lance Bradley, longtime member of the poker media. Most recently, he served as President and Editor-in-Chief at PocketFives, and before that, he was the Editor-in-Chief and VP of Content at Bluff Media.

Blum is not finished, either. She is seeking a Community Manager for her team. This person will help build brand awareness and increase engagement between players and the WPT. Duties will include everything from planning community campaigns and events to editing short-form video content and monitoring social trends. This person will report to Gilmartin.

Blum Brings Experience

People who have been in the poker industry for a while know that Hermance Blum has been an integral part of it. Not only has she been with the World Poker Tour in some capacity since 2011, she worked for partypoker France before that and for PokerStars years since 2008. She knows marketing and the poker industry.

Blum’s roles with the WPT to date always focused on the European arm of the company, initially in marketing positions but more recently as the VP of all WPT Europe. Throughout her decade with the WPT, she has worked from London and secured long-term partnerships between the company and 12 countries. She even won the 2015 European Poker Awards Industry Person of the Year award.

WPT CEO Adam Pliska noted, “I could not think of a better person to lead this new department. Hermance brings a wealth of experience, a passion for poker, and an amazing vision of how to elevate the WPT brand to new heights.”

This is all in line with the upcoming 20th anniversary season of the World Poker Tour. Pliska noted that the company wants to celebrate its “landmark year” with the poker community.

As for Blum, her goal is to develop and execute a global marketing plan to increase the overall awareness of the World Poker Tour. At the same time, she said, “…our mandate is to ensure that poker players and fans are always at the center of the World Poker Tour experience.”

 

*Author note: I wrongly assumed that the filming of WPT final tables at the PokerGO Studio in early 2021 meant that Allied Esports pulled its use of the HyperX Esports Arena away with its ownership. That was incorrect. The WPT will resume filming final tables at that Luxor-based arena in the near future.

 

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