Black Friday's Impact on Poker Media

Black Friday has had a sweeping impact across the poker industry, but one avenue that will be incredibly damaged by the DOJ’s indictment of the Big Three sites is the glamorization of poker in the mainstream media and the jobs and livelihoods of a vast array of people in that side of the business. Thanks to the black eye that all three of the sites are suffering from at the moment, being associated with them is a scarlet letter that no one wants to be burdened with at the present time.

This is why many networks are already racing to eliminate the poker programming they had on tap if it was branded with any of the Big Three’s names. The recently announced Onyx Cup was swiftly cancelled in the wake of Black Friday, and two major partnerships that could’ve reallly sparked FTP/PS to national recognition both dissolved within days of the announcement. The two major PS branded shows, The Big Game and the Million Dollar Challenge, were both immediately cancelled. There’s been no word as to what will happen to flagship programs High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, or the NBC Heads Up Challenge, and only the WSOP programming looks to stay normal in the wake of this; though they announced they will move the Circuit events to an alternate channel.

Expect the number of players each site keeps on their “pro” stable to take a considerable hit, especially United States based players, as the sites have lost a good 40% of their income thanks to the blackout in America, and will no longer be able to afford to keep a stable of players in ways like they used to. Some sponsored U.S. players will probably end up picking up sponsorship with some of the smaller sites, but a good estimate would put around 70-90% of “pro” status poker players without that status anymore. This brings us back to the “adapt or die” mantra that many players are now tossing around; unless these players understand the newfound limitations they have in making a living in the United States, they’ll quickly peter out.

What about the poker media and online poker news sites? This is probably the saddest of the stories for the advertising impact; many of them will simply be out of work once the panic about Black Friday quells. Without an online report to worry about or televised events to write about, there simply will not be enough “newsworthy topics” to cover with the amount of media we currently have dedicated to the sport. It’ll be hard times for most of us, until the legislation passes on online poker, but with no active timetable on how long this will take, it could be months, or even years, before the poker media comes back full strength. The faces of poker were recognizable and marketable up until Black Friday. Now? They’re simply another casualty in the war on online poker; along with names of many of the game’s best and brightest stars.