Since the end of the 09 WSOP, I have read several articles regarding Bluff owning the digital media rights that are 100% incorrect. The only thing factual is that we do own the rights.

Quotes from the likes of Jeff Shulman stating that we outbid Card Player for these rights and they were not interested in acquiring them is 100% inaccurate. Seems this quote was picked up by other poker magazines and media outlets and has been embraced as verbatim without checking on the facts.

The facts are that Card Player did own the rights in 06 and upon completion of their contract Harrah’s/WSOP approached Bluff inquiring if we would be interested in the digital media rights. For reasons I will not go into Card Player was not offered or even given the opportunity to bid on the rights. As I stated, Harrah’s came to us based on our radio broadcast of the 06 WSOP final tables and felt we could produce a better all around product. If you look back at the WSOP site in 06, I am sure most would agree that this was the case. I am not saying we didn’t have our own challenges, but there is no question that people visiting the WSOP site as of 07 saw a vast improvement.

Additionally, as most know Bluff produced the the live web stream of WSOP final tables over the previous 3 years. This deal was with ESPN and not Harrah’s. This was not a licensing deal and no money was exchanged for these rights. We absorbed all the costs to produce the event and provided ESPN360 with content for their site.

I know some of you reading this blog are probably thinking, “who cares,” and to an extent I agree. However, when incorrect information is being passed along that has to do with our company, I believe the people who “do care” have the right to know the facts.

To somewhat change the subject, I have received many emails and personally asked how I feel about one company owning the rights to something that should be open to all media outlets. I can tell you that when Card Player owned these rights I was absolutely against it. If you remember in 06 no other poker media company was able to put up chip counts or do any real updates from the floor. In fact, if anyone media outlet crossed the ropes they were made to back to the viewing area. To me this was totally unacceptable, but we had no other choice then to abide by their rules.

When Bluff took over the rights we did have to pay a rather large license fee. This is a fact. Because we paid for these rights, we had no other choice but to protect our investment. However, we did allow other media outlets to make 1 hourly report and show chip counts of the top 10 players per event. Photographing was also allowed to a certain extent. In 06 this was not the case. If we were not charged for the rights by Harrah’s, we would have had no problem with other media outlets putting up as much website content as they wanted. So, I do understand and recognize other poker media’s complaints. One thing I do not understand is how someone who once owned both the WSOP and WPT rights can complain about this and then threaten to throw the most coveted trophy in poker into the garbage as a means of protest? This seems awfully hypocritical as I am truly at a loss for words regarding the comment.

Have a good Weekend all!