Petition to Eliminate WSOP Main Event Rake Interesting, Pointless

In what will certainly prove to be a fruitless effort, a petition has been started on the website change.org to try to get World Series of Poker officials to make substantive changes to the WSOP Main Event in order to reward players with more spoils. The petition, posted by David Bass, creator of Any Two Pocket Cards, LLC, is addressed to WSOP VP and Tournament Director Jack Effel, WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart, and WSOP VP of Corporate Communications Seth Palansky.

The goal of the petition is two-fold:

Please eliminate the “rake” (i.e., portion withheld for expenses) on player buy-ins into the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event poker tournament; and

Please start a revenue-sharing program to supplement the prize pools for the top WSOP poker tournaments with part of the revenue generated from TV contracts, sponsorships, licensing and other sources derived from the value of the WSOP brand.

I am not about to make this an editorial, but we can all probably agree that the first part is a huge reach and will never fly.

The second request, though, is not totally out of bounds. As Bass writes:

Poker is the only major global sports or gaming competition where the players themselves provide the funding for tournament prize pools and operating expenses.  In addition, the players – including top professionals – are responsible for their own travel and out-of-pocket expenses necessary to participate at live events.

The sentiment makes sense. Players in other sports in the United States share in the revenues the leagues bring in via television contracts and sponsorships and, for the most part, the players don’t pay to enter the competitions, travel to venues, etc. (remember, I said “for the most part”). In poker, on the other hand, the players put their own money at risk, fund the prize pools, and pay the casinos for the right to participate. It is rare to see money added to the prize pool by the host venue or a sponsor. One notable exception is the recently launched Global Poker League, where players do not pay to play (in fact, they are paid on an hourly basis) and sponsors provide the prize money.

The big problem – again, without diving too deep into commentary – is that poker just isn’t popular enough with the general public and the dollar figures that the WSOP pulls in for the event likely aren’t great enough to warrant any sort of monetary concession. The NFL, MLB, and NBA, for example, can share the wealth because that wealth is measured in billions. Sponsors clamor for an advertising presence with those leagues. Television executives would sell their first born for broadcast rights. There just isn’t that kind of money to spread around for WSOP organizers.

I will say that it would certainly be nice if a sponsor would pony up some cash for a prize pool or two or if the WSOP would allocate some sponsorship money to the Main Event. That seems doable. But eliminating the rake seems like a bad idea. If 6,500 players participate in the Main Event this year, that’s about $2.7 million to the house, according to rake figures presented in the petition. Take out of that all the operating costs (not counting dealers and staff, who are paid from a separate rake), and WSOP/Caesars probably isn’t left with all that much in the grand scheme of things. Yes, they likely get a revenue boost from all the people spending money on the property, but I think it’s a bit much to ask to tell the WSOP to willingly give up a sizable chunk of money.

While the petition isn’t going to accomplish anything, the discussion of what monetary responsibility the organizers and sponsors of televised tournaments have to the players is neither new nor a bad one to have.