On Tuesday, the poker world learned that industry veteran Bernard Lee had signed with Foxwoods, becoming one of the first players ever to be sponsored by a land-based casino. Poker News Daily sat down with the host of ESPN’s “Inside Deal” to get the back-story on the signing.
Poker News Daily: Congratulations on your new sponsorship. Talk about the background of signing with Foxwoods.
Bernard Lee: It’s kind of like the perfect marriage of the top New England casino with the top New England poker media personality. Why it works out so well is that Foxwoods, for me, has always been home court. It’s always been the place where I’ve done my firsts – my first tournament, my first big buy-in main event, and my first major tournament victory. Foxwoods wants to continue its legacy of having one of the top rooms in New England and utilize someone who has built themselves up in New England to do so.
PND: Do you see there being a flurry of additional sponsorships between players and casinos as a result?
Bernard Lee: I don’t know about a flurry, but I definitely think that it’ll open up some eyes across the country among casino management. We’ve always talked about mainstream advertisers and sponsors in poker. The WSOP has done a good job of that, but we jumped from online sites to companies like Milwaukee’s Best. There’s a middle ground, however, of casinos. They have relationships with poker players already because they host them in the brick-and-mortar world. Because our world is so internet-based, however, we tend to not even think about casinos. By the end of the year, I think someone else will sign with a casino.
PND: What does it mean to you to represent a brick-and-mortar casino as opposed to an online poker room?
Bernard Lee: I’m really honored and truly humbled that they want to sponsor me. They can sponsor anyone they want. There are a lot of solid New England players and the fact that they wanted to utilize me is amazing. This is where I got my start. When Foxwoods opened in 1992, I was there within three months. I’ve made eight final tables at Foxwoods and they have added up to more than $750,000 in earnings. It’s home court advantage. When I come to Foxwoods, I feel like I’m playing in my backyard.
PND: Will we see more coverage of Foxwoods on “The Bernard Lee Poker Show,” “Inside Deal,” or your Boston Herald column?
Bernard Lee: I’m a journalist first and foremost. There has to be journalistic integrity in what I do and Foxwoods understands that. I’m not going to go out of my way to promote Foxwoods if it’s not correct. I’m not going to point to Foxwoods in everything I do. However, there will be some changes with regards to my radio show, which will now be sponsored by Foxwoods. It won’t change my format, but we might include news items dealing with Foxwoods.
PND: Talk about Season 1 of ESPN’s “Inside Deal”? Have you had a chance to check out your competition, “Poker2Nite”?
Bernard Lee: Season 1 was a fantastic start. For Season 2, we’re going to take advantage of our strengths and tweak it so that it flows better. We’ll utilize the strengths and poker brands that ESPN has to create the number one poker show out there.
I’ve seen “Poker2Nite” and I think it’s a good show as well. Anything that is related to poker is good for poker, so there’s really no competition between us there. It’s great that they have a show as well and that there’s an interest in poker.
Bernard Lee: How difficult is it to juggle the multitude of commitments in poker that you have?
Bernard Lee: I used to work for a Fortune 500 company and was a Senior Manager for New Marketing and Business Development. For anyone who has worked in a high-profile company, you know there’s no such thing as a 40-hour week. This is a joy for me to do this; I still pinch myself. I can have 12 or 14 hour days and I don’t consider it work. I’m accustomed to juggling things and used to have more commitments for something I didn’t love nearly as much.
Bernard Lee: Will you be playing more as a result of the Foxwoods sponsorship?
Bernard Lee: Without question, I’ll be playing in as many Foxwoods tournaments as I can. In all honesty, I’ve played in the big tournaments there since 2004 anyway. I might play in a few more events at the WSOP and travel to play in WSOP Europe. There may be two or three events I wouldn’t have played in otherwise, but I was on the road once a month already. It really won’t change my schedule that much.
Great for Bernard. But Scotty Ngyuen was sponsored by the hard rock in tulsa for years.