In the world of business endorsements, there are wins and then there are WINS. Today’s news in the poker world qualifies for the later, ALL CAPS category. This morning, soccer megastar Cristiano Ronaldo announced via Twitter that he has joined Team PokerStars. PokerStars has confirmed the signing on its blog.
Cristiano Ronaldo is considered by many, along with Lionel Messi, one of the two best soccer players of his generation. He is widely regarded as one of the best footballers of all time; some have named him the best ever. His accolades are too many to list – just go to Wikipedia to see them all. He has been a scoring machine in his career – he is the only player to score 50 or more goals in a season five times, for example. It’s just ridiculous. Name a scoring record, he probably has it.
Currently playing for Real Madrid, Ronaldo is not only one of the best players alive, but he also one of the most popular athletes on the planet. His Facebook page has 103 million followers. His Twitter account has nearly 36 million followers. I mean, hell, he made a post on Facebook the other day asking fans to help him choose which underwear to wear that day and it got over 820,000 likes. And he was fully clothed in the picture (for those who are unfamiliar, he is a handsome man).
So this is quite a get for PokerStars, who could not have found a better person to serve as a brand ambassador. His worldwide reach is just insane. Of course, PokerStars doesn’t “need” help in getting its brand known – it is the world’s largest online poker room by a mile – but it is not as if Stars has been pulling in the customers by the busloads lately. With a seven-day average of 16,000 cash game players, according to PokerScout’s numbers, Stars is still way ahead of anyone else (888poker, the next largest, has 2,200 players), but it used to be so much bigger. It has seen its cash game traffic drop monthly; it was over 20,000 players earlier this year. Some of that decline can certainly be blamed on the calendar, as the warmer the weather gets, the fewer people that stay indoors and play poker, but such a sizable drop cannot be entirely blamed on the sun.
Of his decision to sign with PokerStars, Ronaldo told the PokerStars blog, “”I like playing for winning teams, and PokerStars is the perfect partner for me. As a brand, it is always looking at ways to improve and stay ahead of the curve, and as an athlete that is something I truly respect.”
He added, “I started playing poker a few years ago, and I love the competition, strategy and fun. I’m looking forward to taking my game to the online and live poker tables and meeting my fans head to head. Although football is my world, poker has always been my game. I’m very excited to join the team.”
*Article photo courtesy PokerStars.com
