DAILY BUZZ: WSOP Numbers Steady, Yukon Ho, Social Media in Poker

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DAILY BUZZ: WSOP Numbers Steady, Yukon Ho, Social Media in Poker

Jason Kirk | November 12, 2009

Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the entire internet for all the latest news in and around the world of poker. If it involves chips and cards, or people known to associate with chips and cards, we’re there.

ESPN’s WSOP finale numbers down slightly; overall numbers up slightly

Attendance numbers at this year’s WSOP Main Event might have been down a bit thanks to the worst economy the country has seen in decades, but the number of people watching the tournament held generally steady in 2009 compared to 2008.

ESPN’s same-day coverage of the Main Event drew more than 2.1 million viewers this year, earning a 1.8 household coverage rating. Overall, ESPN averaged a 1.0 rating for the entire 31-episode run of its 2009 WSOP coverage, which held steady compared to last year. ESPN saw increases in weekly averages for households (up 7% to 1,024,901) and viewership (up 9% to 1,228,008), and a significant jump of 13 percent in the important Male 25-54 demographic. Translation to English: the overall numbers are up thanks to your dad and his Tuesday night home game buddies.

Those kinds of modest gains are pretty good news for ESPN in light of the long-term deal with the WSOP earlier this year, especially given the change in format to avoid airing earlier bracelet events and focus more on the Main Event. It seems like people have responded to the new coverage, which hopefully will encourage ESPN to continue evolving the way it presents the WSOP to the public.

Brad Booth is the new spokesman for GR88.com

Brad “Yukon” Booth signs on with new poker site

GR88.com is one of the newest members of Merge Network of online poker sites, and to help promote their brand they’ve recruited Brad “Yukon” Booth. A former Full Tilt Poker and Doyle’s Room pro, Booth has joined on as GR88.com’s official spokesman and Head of Poker Development. The latter title is likely to be especially important to Booth, who was among those taken for a ride during the superuser scandals.

“Yukon Brad’s talent, undeniable work ethic, and desire for fairness makes him the perfect partner of GR88.com,” said Peter Karroll, CEO of International Arts Management, the parent company of GR88.com. “Our site offers players around the world premium poker and casino games, programs and tournaments all set within a secure and trust-worthy environment.”

While you wait for a chance to play with Booth on GR88.com, check out this video of Booth hitting a straight flush against Daniel Negreanu on Season 2 of High Stakes Poker, or this video of Booth running a gigantic semi-bluff on Phil Ivey on Season 3 of HSP.

Social media - the next frontier of online poker?

Austrian online gambling giant Bwin has been making waves on the market side of its business this year, but now it’s turned its eyes to the software side of its poker business for its next big move - social media integration.

Bwin has spent some €45 million developing its new online poker client, currently in testing, which replaces the standard online poker chat box with a “shoutbox” filled with social media options tied into existing social media services like Twitter and Facebook. Players will be able to make comments on specific bets and hands, invite their friends to the table, and generally be more, um, social while they’re playing their favorite game. (Hopefully one of the options will be a button to gently remind all the loudmouths at my table not to knock on the fishtank.)

“It’s really the customer experience that’s key,” said Bwin’s Chief Technological Officer, Thomas Kiessling, of the company’s decision to move into the crossroads of online poker and social media. “Customer relationship management, customer intelligence, usability studies. That is a major priority for me.”

(Bwin Add Social Media To Online Poker - FlopTurnRiver.com)

Beth Shak is much more clothed here than she was in News Of The World yesterday

Beth Shak appears in British gossip paper

I write a lot about “poker in the mainstream” news in this space, so today I’m going to throw you some balance with a little “poker in the tabloids” news.

Beth Shak appeared in yesterday’s News of the World, the British tabloid that features all the latest in television gossip, sports gossip, and Michael Jackson gossip. The interview, which talks plenty about strip poker but sadly doesn’t go into the merits of semi-bluffing the turn when you’re down to just your underpants, is probably not going to be of much interest to most of you. Luckily there are pictures of Shak in stockings and lingerie accompanying the interview to keep your mind off whatever it is you’re ducking to read poker news.

No big surprise that the tip of the hat here goes to Wicked Chops Poker, who read News of the World daily, link to pictures of women in various states of undress almost as often, and sometimes even write about poker.

(Shak Attack! - News of the World)

ESPN Inside Deal wrap-up

And finally, ESPN Inside Deal posted its wrap-up episode with the two remaining interviews it hadn’t gotten yet: Darvin Moon and world champion Joe Cada. Check out the last episode of Inside Deal with hosts Laura Lane and Bernard Lee here.

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