Online poker TV ads on Ultimate Poker Challenge show

[MicroBob]

In Florida right now (different TV channels then what I get at home).
The 'Ultimate Poker Challange' tournament from the Plaza in Las Vegas is on with Daniel Negarneau and some guy named Chad Brown commentating.
Haven't seen this show before (maybe others have).

It's on WFGX cable-channel 12 here which I guess might be a local station or cable-access channel or something. I'm in Destin, Fla which is kinda near Pensacola and/or Panama City. Is this some syndicated show?

What really strikes me is the number of ads for online-poker sites.

When they show a graphic of chip-count or that the blinds are increasing there is a little graphic for FultTilt poker in the upper-left corner.
On the walls behind them are banners for cardplayer and partypoker.net.


Then the first commercial break came and the first 4 commercials were ALL for online sites.
They also all used the dot-NET trick (indicating a play-money site) that partypoker started to help keep their TV spots on the legal side of that grey-line for advertising.

the commercials in order were...
absolutepoker-dot-NET
tigergaming-dot-NET
partypoker-dot-NET
pokerstars-dot-NET

AP commercial: the 'net' was very very small and they just said 'absolutepoker' (without the NET) possibly in hopes that people would go to dot-com instead.

The pokerstars-dot-net spot featured Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer standing back-to-back next to each other as the back-to-back WSOP champions (neat concept I guess) that have been produced by pokerstars. "learn to play for free. keep notes on your opponents (video shows Moneymaker typing the words "bluffs a lot" in the notes) and keep track of your stats." etc etc.


This post is going to be cross-posted in the WPT and internet forums.
I don't normally X-post (okay okay....not THAT much anyway) but I thought this was especially interesting for the internet forum because of all the internet-poker TV ads on the show....
obviously this is something that had been curtailed over the past year or so but the whole 'dot-NET' trick for a play-money only site seems to be catching on in popularity.
Never seen this many online-poker TV ads before.


Also - when I was in Wisconsin a few days ago staying at my Mom's place I saw several ads for pacific (specifically Bet888 or whatever the hell it is).


Apologies to both forums if I'm posting about a show and a topic that everybody else already knows about.

[BradleyT]

I see the 888 commercials all the time.

[TheBull]

I work at a atation in North Carolina that runs UPC, and we are under instructions to cover those ads with local PSAs because they say NC law doesn't allow them.

I'm aware that the .net sites are supposedly free, but my particular station doesn't see a distinction and has us cover them up anyway. I'm not sure that the distributor of the program is aware that we are doing this, but we bury it at 2am anyway, so it's not pulling in good numbers either way.

[MicroBob]

That's very interesting that you are covering them up.


It's a fine-line....but these are advertisements for play-money poker which shouldn't be any different than advertising a site to play bingo for free.....or to play X-Box games online for that matter (like football or various car-chase games or whatever).


However, obviously these brand names are the same as the sites that aren't necessarily legal....and since the (maybe) "illegal" brand-name is getting the air-time these dot-NET ads might get shot-down too in time.


Ironically, your station is possibly breaking the contract they have with the syndicated show (and possibly the law) by covering up the ads like they are.
But maybe they have permission to cover up these ads and the UPC guys are just happy to have anyone air their show (at 2 a.m. or any other time).
In this day and age it is VERY difficult for a synicated show to be profitable and/or survive. They're not in much of a position to tell the station to 'play the ads or else' because they're desperate to get the show moving.


I'm not sure your station just doesn't see any difference though. It's possible they do see the slight (or not so slight) difference but they just choose to not air the ads anyway (as is their right....if the show approves).

I think the folks at Travel Channel and ESPN can tell the difference....but they have chosen to not air the ads for the sites just to avoid any potential problems.


It would be very interesting if the sites were approved and/or regulated in the U.S. and these ads were legal for whatever TV station wanted to show them.
We would then get bombared with TV ads for online sites.

Although, legalizing the activity doesn't have to mean they would be allowed to advertise on TV.
In the U.S., cigarette ads have been illegal on TV and radio since 1972 or 73 or so for example.

[bonanz]

I saw a commercial during the upc that blatantly displayed and said "partypoker.COM" ...

curious...

[Kevmath]

This week's show was the 10th week of the program (airing at 11:59p Sunday), which will end towards the end of February 2005. On their web site, it shows that it's on WLMT in Memphis (but no time given). The Full Tilt logo at the start of the show was the first time I noticed their placement on the program. When they dreamed this up, they thought it would have a 1M+ payday to someone, only to turn into 100K for first place in the finals last week. Although from what I read, they would change the format next season, if there actually is a next season.

Kevin...

[Army Eye]

[ QUOTE ]
I saw a commercial during the upc that blatantly displayed and said "partypoker.COM" ...

curious...

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. Me too. Throughout the show there were the .Net ads, but at the beginning, right after the preceding show ended, there was a partypoker.COM commercial.

[MicroBob]

Not sure which channel WLMT is in Memphis but I'll try to keep an eye out for it when I get back home.
I don't think it's a very good show (but at least it's not completely terrible)....and the crowd looked less than spectacular.
The info about the prize-pool getting cut is interesting and certainly makes one think that this might be a one shot deal and that a 2nd season is unlikely (at least in syndication....maybe they could try to hook up with Game Show Network or some other cable channel).

Info about the party dot-COM ad that they showed is interesting too.

[Army Eye]

[ QUOTE ]
When they dreamed this up, they thought it would have a 1M+ payday to someone, only to turn into 100K for first place in the finals last week. Although from what I read, they would change the format next season, if there actually is a next season.

Kevin...

[/ QUOTE ]

Ouch! That's a pretty big flop. And also there was the WPPA championships that was a complete bust recently. I guess the moral of the story is that there is a glut of tourneys right now.

How was the prize pool for the UPC main event determined? It seems that there wasn't a buy-in.

[Kevmath]

They had some wildly optimistic ideas on how many would participate in these events. They were thinking they'd get 200 people for each $1k tournament. They took 40% out of each tournament (which drew at most about 80 people I think) to go towards the final tournament, and 100k was given for the top 10 in points. Take a look at http://www.ultimatepokerchallenge.com/game.html for what they were hoping to draw to this event.

Kevin...