Throughout his run to the top of the leaderboard during the 2014 World Series of Poker Championship Event, the Netherlands’ Jorryt van Hoof has demonstrated excellent poker skills. There is one thing that he hasn’t sported in any of the ESPN broadcasts of the tournament and won’t show up on Monday when he attempts to win the World Championship: a sponsorship badge. Many might have been wondering why this is the case and the Worldwide Leader in Sports has come up with the answer.
Writing for ESPN.com’s poker section, Dutch poker journalist Remko Rinkema delved into the issue. “He (van Hoof) would’ve been the perfect player to represent an online poker website,” Rinkema writes on the site. “The accomplished pro is based in London, has been playing some of the highest stakes online for many years (as ‘TheCleaner11’) and is a very well respected and feared player.”
So what is the issue? It turns out that the Dutch government, in the midst of enacting regulations for a nationally run operations that are expected to start next year, has informed poker players that any sponsorships would be considered “commercials” and would impact the ability of sites to earn a Dutch license. According to Rinkema, the Dutch gambling authority website even says, “The gaming authority will continue to monitor commercials with regards to national and international sporting events. In the case of a violation, the individual operator will be addressed.” Throughout the entirety of 2014, the Dutch gaming officials have been monitoring many sporting events and, in particular, the final table at the WSOP Championship Event.
It is unknown how much money that van Hoof might lose because of this situation. Last year, Michiel Brummelhuis became the first Dutch player to work his way to the “November Nine” and was rewarded for his work with a sponsorship deal from 888Poker. Brummelhuis commented to Rinkema that the Dutch authorities had been in touch with 888Poker this year after working on their regulations and that Brummelhuis couldn’t make “any promotional efforts” until the site earned a license from the Dutch government.
“888Poker wanted Jorryt really bad, they even contacted me about it right after he made the final table,” Brummelhuis commented to Rinkema. “After they received that letter, they halted their negotiations immediately…I think this put off other sites as well that (considered) offering Jorryt a deal.” Brummelhuis also noted to Rinkema that he was in line for a renewal of his sponsorship deal (which expired last month) until Dutch authorities took their action.
The potential for millions of dollars in sponsorships became available following the mid-2000s “poker boom.” 2003 World Champion Chris Moneymaker has maintained a sponsorship deal through PokerStars that he has utilized to traverse the world as an ambassador for the game. 2004 World Champion Greg Raymer and 2005 World Champion Joe Hachem have also greatly benefitted from sponsorship deals that they earned with PokerStars from winning the WSOP Championship Event (Raymer left PokerStars in 2011 when the two entities couldn’t come to a contract renewal agreement).
There are other notable poker professionals who earn multi-million dollar deals for promoting the game. Most notable is the newest member of the Poker Hall of Fame, Daniel Negreanu, who has been a longtime sponsored member of Team PokerStars Pro. Other players such as Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Michael Mizrachi, Tom Dwan, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom, Annette Obrestad and Gus Hansen (among others) have all, at one time or another during their poker careers, been sponsored by online poker rooms.
Rinkema notes that the decision by Dutch authorities could come back to bite them in the end. By denying two of their poker sons – van Hoof and Brummelhuis – the opportunity to promote the game, they may be putting themselves in a tough position when it comes to the opening of licensed poker in 2015. With that said, Brummelhuis believes that the Dutch poker world will come out better, stating to Rinkema “I’m not sure if the Netherlands will ever have another poker boom, but the licensing system allowing for poker sites to advertise again will perhaps help growth.”