It Was Time To Do Something

We’ve tried very hard since November to negotiate a settlement of the release with the World Poker Tour. We were bargaining in good faith as best we could. There are some very important elements of that release that are completely unacceptable. There are other issues beside the release, but I’d day the release was the thing that got us here.

There are three major issues. First, the number of tournaments is limited by the agreements between the WPT and the host casinos. Second, the release and the broad rights the WPT feels like it should have in terms of our name and likeness are completely unfair, particularly considering they don’t pay for those. We have no choice in the matter. And finally the structures of the final tables. These are all fixed in all WPT events and that’s a big problem because you have these great tournaments that have taken four or five days to get down to six players and then it’s over in four hours. That’s a real shame.

The problem is that the current release limits our choice. If I’m sitting in my house thinking, “Boy, I’d like to play in a $10,000 tournament somewhere,” at least ten months of the year when the World Series isn’t going on my choice is either to go to a WPT event and sign a release that violates many of the agreements I have with other vendors or not play. And I want to play. I want to compete. The WPT has the dominant market position in terms of those events representing the vast majority of the large buy-in televised tournaments out there. With that market dominance comes some responsibility. They have to treat the players fairly. It’s in the best interest of poker, and it’s in the best interest of the WPT to treat the players fairly.

This is something that just needed to happen and because it’s an anti-trust suit the seven of us could act as the proxy, the test case that would clear the way for everyone. The seven of us feel like we’ve been injured. We’ve been prevented from playing in these things for almost a year now and we just felt like it was time to do something. We know that the poker media is around here so we’re taking some advantage of the fact that it’s the World Series of Poker, but at the same time we felt it was very important that we show respect for the biggest and most prestigious poker tournament in the world and not announce it during the main event.

We hope for a settlement that would be fair for everyone. We hope for a release that is fair for everyone where people can retain control of their names and likenesses. I want to make a very clear distinction. We’re not saying there shouldn’t be a release. There has to be a release. You have to let the WPT film the shows and air them in a show. There has to be a WPT on the Travel Channel. Without a release you can’t do that. We’re not suggesting otherwise. This is all about the use and the control of our names and likenesses, which is all we have outside of the shows. That’s something we don’t feel like we should have to give away for zero in a priced fixed market.