Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. is denying claims that it breached a $22.5 million sponsorship contract with Ultra Internet Media (UIM), the owners of online poker site Everest Poker. Harrah’s, which purchased the World Series of Poker (WSOP) brand in 2004, filed a response to the suit on Friday that detailed its side of the heated dispute.
Earlier this month, UIM filed suit in a Las Vegas federal court claiming that the WSOP breached its on-felt logo agreement, which assigned Everest Poker sole privileges at the event, including prominent logo positions on the table felt. According to UIM, ESPN affiliate network RTL9 in Luxembourg aired the tournament in France and digitally replaced the Everest Poker logo with that of Full Tilt Poker, a competing online poker site.
Everest Poker paid $6.2 million for the 2008 WSOP sponsorship and $7.9 million for the 2009 tournament, but has cancelled the remaining $8.4 million of the deal for this year’s tournament, which gets underway on May 28th. UIM is also holding Harrah’s responsible for any loss of profits and harm done to its business reputation.
The Las Vegas Sun reported highlighted filings made by Harrah’s on Friday that denied any breach of contract with UIM. Harrah’s claimed that Everest Poker was to be the presenting sponsor of the WSOP during the broadcasts in certain European countries, excluding France. Harrah’s also said it went above and beyond in living up to its end of the three-year deal.
“Nobody from Harrah’s made any representation during any of the negotiations or in the promotional agreement concerning any ESPN distribution or WSOP programming in France,” Harrah’s attorneys said in the filing. “Indeed, at the time of the negotiations, UIM did not have an online gaming license recognized by French authorities. It was broadly observed that poker programming was not distributed by French television stations unless tournaments were sponsored by a French licensee.”
The filing continued, “In 2008 and 2009 the WSOP was broadcast by ESPN and parties with whom it has contracted in over 170 countries, including the United States, collectively to over 250 million households, for over 6,000 hours. Thus, UIM has certainly gained all the exposure for the everestpoker.net website that it could have hoped for, and more.”
Apparently, after UIM and Everest Poker complained about the French broadcasts in 2009, an arrangement was agreed to in which ESPN would find a broadcaster for the WSOP in Spain and Italy at no extra cost to UIM. Spain and Italy combined have about the same number of potential viewers as France, according to the filing.
Harrah’s declined to comment on the issue, telling Poker News Daily, “We let the filing speak for itself.” The controversy leaves Harrah’s and the WSOP without an on-felt poker sponsor for the rapidly-approaching 2010 WSOP, which leaves inquiring minds wondering who will step up to the plate. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker both have ties to the ESPN WSOP broadcast. Other WSOP partners include Jack Link’s Beef Jerky and Milwaukee’s Best Light.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for ongoing coverage of the 2010 WSOP.