LAS VEGAS–I hear from a semi-reliable source (who may or may not be a tournament director) that Ultimate Bet was hard at work when Dutch Boyd made the final table a few days ago. Boyd, of course, recently signed with Ultimate Bet … and UB agents were supposedly offering fans around the final table $5,000 a pop to wear UB gear.
At first I found this figure unbelievable. $500? OK, that might make sense. But $5k? Well, it turns out to be not so unrealistic of a number. Other reliable sources confirm that coughing up, say, for example, $100k would be very worthwhile for an online poker site to get guaranteed TV exposure surrounding a televised final table. In fact, certain websites are hovering around the final tables … ready to offer short-term sponsorship deals to the any unknowns who happen to make it to center stage at The Show. PokerStars, Full Tilt, Party, et al. don\’t do that sort of ambush marketing, but 888, Interpoker, and possibly Ultimate Bet do.
