View From the Editor: Poker faced about new technology? - August 2007  

Readers, S&T would like to start with a gratuitous plug and fawning gestures of gratitude in the direction of Setanta Sports who rescued a typically wet British summer weekend for us recently, not only with Aussie Rules coverage featuring our beloved St Kilda Saints, but also Blue Square Premier action (aka Football Conference in old money) with the mighty Exeter City, our soccer heroes. Bliss. Can life get any better? (OK, there wasn’t any Darts on, but that’s not Setanta’s fault; even Darts players have holidays you know).
So, the soccer season has truly kicked off in the UK again with the news that the English Premier League (EPL) (which apparently is the division that resides four places above the Conference) has blummin’ well gone and sold its online video clips rights globally for oodles of lovely lolly (reportedly around $80m worth no less). Previously, S&T mentioned how the EPL’s head honcho Richard Scudamore hadn’t ruled out a YouTube type company buying the governing body’s rights officially, so the path certainly seems to be paved and ready for a treading. (Law suits of course permitting).
Lines between traditional operators and new-kids-on-the-block (and we don’t mean the late 1980s pop combo of Donnie Wahlberg, the Knight brothers et al), are becoming increasingly blurred as has also been witnessed in the igaming side of the industry. Who would ‘Adam and Eve it’ that a refined company such as The Telegraph Group would apply for a Remote Gambling Operating Licence in the UK? S&T’s mother-in-law would no doubt call such a move “vulgar”, but then again she cuts the crusts off her sandwiches. Interesting times….(in the UK igaming industry that is; not in the world of bread-based meals unless readers would like to correct us. We’re always up for a cheese and pickle bap after all).
Talking of igaming, S&T’s sister publication BritSport is a cheeky young thing and recently asked us to answer the question: “Is Poker a Sport?” As this made a change from said young sibling stealing our tricycle and hogging the PlayStation/iPod/Scalextric/whatever young folk do these days), we thought we’d oblige. For any BritSport subscribers who have read this already, many apologies, but S&T is very busy you know and can’t just keep churning out new stuff. Good grief, do you think this is all we do? Daytime television takes an IMMENSE amount of concentration. Anyway, we suggest if you have read it already, stop whining and just skip ahead to the ingeniously titled ‘The final section’. Face, Bothered, etc.

Is Poker a Sport?

Answering the question ‘Is Poker a Sport?’ puts S&T in mind of several discussions over the years that we have had regarding another ‘sport’ that we follow avidly, as you may have picked up earlier, Darts. Whilst our support of the latter as a sport has been backed up by Sport England at least, Poker is unlikely to achieve such accolades in the near future in the UK (and less so in the US!), although in March this year it was given sporting status in Russia.
So, is Poker really a sport or is Russia trying to start a natty trend? Let us consider the evidence. If a sport can be defined as a competitive activity that requires training and skill, then most Poker players will argue that practising their craft is a fundamental part of their game and that, despite Poker generally being classified as a game of chance/luck, it takes a certain level of skill to assess the scenarios that could be played out from your opponents’ hands. S&T knows Poker players who have studied their game feverishly to what would be beyond degree status (if there were such a qualification), displaying mathematical prowess worthy of a scientist.
Whilst Poker players do not run around the card table in an athletic way, nor thwack their cards over nets or into holes, (which potentially could be an idea to liven up television coverage now that all the ‘under-the table’ stuff has been done to death), they are often required to concentrate for hours using heightened mental agility.
And what about the other popular way of defining a sport, that of having a world cup or championship? Well Poker certainly has one of those. Readers may recall that S&T was fortunate enough to be invited to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas last year which is the must-attend event on any serious Poker player’s calendar and was impressed at the level of professionalism surrounding the event. There is also the World Poker Tour, a made-for-television event that attracts the Poker elite and takes in every major Poker-playing market in the globe. With an Asian Poker Tour now on the cards (forgive the pun), interest in the game can only grow further.
Sports are governed by defined sets of rules. So is Poker. Sports have governing bodies and codes of conducts. So does Poker – the World Poker Association was launched in 2005. Sports have stars. The likes of Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker (pictured above right courtesy of Getty Images Sport/Ethan Miller) and Annie Duke are savants who are worshiped by the Poker masses in the same way that Tiger Woods is in Golf and Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor is in Darts. (Although a BritSport reader kindly informed me that he dislikes Moneymaker with a passion. Scary). Sports have commercial partners queuing up to throw money at them. S&T favourite, Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the World Series of Poker, is turning sponsors away as he wants to keep his brand exclusive and create a “Wimbledon of Poker”.
So, does S&T think Poker is a Sport? We think you can probably guess which way we are leaning, but if you want to find out for sure, and discover why the online side of the market will be worth $10.03bn by 2012, then you’ll have to purchase the second gorgeous edition of The Global Business of Poker! See http://www.sportandtechnology.com/page/0359.html. There really is no such thing as a free lunch.

The final section

Before S&T signs off and starts counting the days until SportelMonaco (yes, even we get market withdrawal), we would like to end with a message to the kind gentleman who (we assume) works in PR who phoned us up last week waxing lyrical about some “excellent technology” that his client/company has created for soccer clubs in the UK. According to the gentleman, soccer is the most popular sport in the UK. (No, really? Thanks for that, we thought it was Curling). All he wanted to do was meet up and tell us about it in more detail. Whilst S&T is always interested to hear about the next best thing, we usually require slightly more information than the promise of “excellent technology”, however our request for further details was met with a stunned riposte of “you don’t sound very enthusiastic”. Sir, if S&T met up with every technology company out there that promises to revolutionise sport, we wouldn’t have any time to have tea with our friends or play Poker online, let alone write any lavish words of wisdom and insight. Certainly, patronising us with gems about which sports are popular in the UK and questioning our enthusiasm in, what quite frankly was an extremely condescending tone, are not conducive to receiving coverage in S&T, nor we imagine, any publication. Suffice to say, we have not heard back from the gentleman in question yet. Fortunately, nor have we yet woken up to find a severed horse’s head on the pillow next to us. Happy days!

Rachael Church-Sanders
Editor

Do you think Poker is a sport or do you not really give a monkeys? It goes without saying that it would be mighty spiffy hearing from you, so please send all your comments and stories to the editor (rchurch@sportandtechnology.com) as fast as you jolly well can. And please do not get upset with us on the phone if we don’t immediately make an appointment to interview you though.

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