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Fun with Factoids

by , Jan 25, 2007 | 11:30 am

Comments (10)

While talking with Brian Balsbaugh yesterday evening, we learned a couple interesting things. One is that Jeff Madsen may have not been my best fantasy pick ever … why? Because he’s still in school, focusing on finishing college more so than scoring points for Dan. Also learned, related to that, that Full Tilt Poker is paying for his tuition at Univ. of Calif. / Santa Barbara. Very cool of them — genuine as well, as the Full Tilt publicity whoring machine made no effort to publicize this gift.

The other piece of info that came to light was that 75 million American households watched the WSOP on ESPN during the third quarter of 2006.


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10 Comments to “Fun with Factoids”


  1. Neko the Poker Hound     says:
    January 25th, 2007 at 1:56pm

    And yet the popular opinion of the people is still not enough to help us get a cutout for a game that has more advantage to a player than Horseracing, Jai Alai, or lotteries.

    I am waaiting for more updates on the legislation in Texas as it comes out. Precident is the only way we will win the fight.


  2. Marvin Chosky     says:
    January 25th, 2007 at 6:48pm

    The 75,000,000 aren’t unique households. The 75,000,000 is the total for all televised shows and since most poker players, myself included, watched most if not all, and sometimes repeats, of the shows, the real number of unique households is closer to 2,500,000. None of the shows made the Nielson top 10 cable lists.


  3. DanM     says:
    January 25th, 2007 at 6:52pm

    hmm, i hear what you’re saying, marvin … and thanks for the clarification. but where do you get your reduction by 30x?


  4. DanM     says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 6:28am

    Upon re-rethinking … I think the 75 million represents the number of unique households that tuned in to any of the WSOP coverage at any one time. So the 1-in-4 Americans refers to one in four seeing at least some glimpse of the WSOP on some ESPN channel at some time. That certainly seems plausible, no?

    Will of course see more solid clarification.


  5. Michele Lewis     says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 9:36am

    I hadn’t heard Full Tilt was paying a Full Tuition for Jeff. He is a very nice kid that seems to have his head on straight. They couldn’t have picked a greater person. Well, except maybe Dan.


  6. jackietrehorn     says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 10:47am

    Marvin is right.
    There are about 111 million US HHs.
    Figuring cable TV penetration at about 70% (I don’t have the exact number off the top of my head) that puts the program in a total of 78 million homes. It just isn’t possible that 75 million HHs watched the WSOP. 75 million might be the gross number, not allowing for duplication. Allowing for duplication, according to Marvin, brings the NET number (reach) down to 2.5 million. Given the habits of most poker players I know to tune in over and over and over again and even watch the same rounds/hands over and over, this is entirely possible.


  7. Marvin Chosky     says:
    January 27th, 2007 at 1:31am

    USA Today publishes the Nielson ratings every Wednesday. They give network and cable viewers. The only ESPN show to make the top 15 is Monday football which averaged around 10,000,000 viewers. The 15th show is usually around 3,000,000, so anything not on the list is below 3,000,000. WWE wrestling usually makes the top 15, taking number 1 and 2 last week with 6 and 5.4 million. 75,000,000 unique viewers is Super Bowl numbers. Most regular shows get the same viwers over and over. American Idol got 37.4 and 36.9 million viewers last week. That doesn’t mean 75 million unique viewers but more like 40 million.

    By the way. I am probably one of the ten unique viewers watching Phil and Mike on Poker After Dark.


  8. DanM     says:
    January 27th, 2007 at 9:48am

    I think we might just be debating semantics. I am hearing what you are saying … it’s not that 75 million households sat down and tuned in to any one episode. I think what they are saying is that for ALL poker episodes on ESPN during the third quarter … the total number of “uniques” was 75mm.

    Am I simply doing some bad math? Let’s say there are 13 weeks in a quarter … WSOP had to air AT LEAST three times a week … the original, the re-run, and then some older rerun. (probably more, particularly if you factor in ESPN classic and 2.) anyhow, that means we are talking about 39 episodes of poker … and again, this is probably way undershooting.

    anyhow, that would mean an AVERAGE of less than 2 million per episode, which jibes with your numbers.

    the fact that i am low/high balling all these numbers make me think the stat is exactly what they say it is … that over the course of airing some 39 episodes of WSOP poker (probably way more actually), 75 million househoulds tuned into at least one of those at least once.


  9. Marvin Chosky     says:
    January 27th, 2007 at 3:08pm

    The semantics are played by the networks. An advertiser wants his message in front of as many different viewers as possible, called unique viewers. The networks use total viewers, because it sounds better. I would think that he WSOP had no more than 2,500,000 “Unique” viewers although I agree with their total of 75,000,000. Since I watched almost all the shows at least once and some twice, maybe even three times, I probably counted 50 to the network but only one to advertisers.

    It depends on the point of view. Rush Limbo quotes 25,000,000 listeners a week, but it’s really the same 5,000,000 listening each day. Or Idol with 37,000,000 on each of two days; it’s basiclly the same people, not 74,000,000 unique viewers.

    It’s similar to someone going all-in with 8-5 off-suit and thinking how great a play he made when his oponant had 3-2 off-suit. It’s a matter of semantics and point of view.

    As an advertiser, I want unique viewers; that’s why the local channels and the cable companies sell packages of sidderent times and shows so we are in front of different eyeballs.


  10. DanM     says:
    January 27th, 2007 at 3:44pm

    I sent an email to ESPN to see if they would answer. Indeed, I know how the numbers get inflated and thrown around.

    I claim 25,000 unique visitors a month at Pokerati … which is the number provided by AwStats (which reports a higher number than SiteMeter, for example). But it would be disingenuous for me to claim 300,000 “uniques” a year … because most of those are repeat visitors from month-to-month.