It all started with a tweet from Alexandra Botez on July 15, 2023. She tweeted that paywalling the greatest spectacle of any sport would lead to a decrease in its relevance.
Alexandra gave an example of the biggest-watched event, the Boxing Heavyweight Championship, featuring Muhammad Ali. The event attracted 2 billion viewership 50 years ago. Today, the biggest boxing event attracts only 1 million views.
Some people in the poker community supported the comment, while others disagreed. Alexandra had good arguments and data to support her theory.
She understood the need for PokerGO to paywall the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table. However, she believed it was shortsighted. Alexandra noted that boxers today were paid more than 50 years ago, but the sport no longer had the cultural impact it once had.
The chess player and poker streamer hoped that WSOP would consider giving streaming rights while considering accessibility to all. Alexandra argued that this would contribute to the health of poker and was good for business because more views meant higher participation and sponsorships.
Should a Streaming Rights Owner Be Responsible for the Growth of Poker?
PokerGO has the streaming rights for the WSOP Main Event final table. According to Alexandra and those that support her, PokerGO is hurting the game’s growth. They believe that the poker room could attract more people to watch the most prestigious poker game by not imposing a subscription fee.
Some poker fans are comfortable paying to watch the final table. However, others feel the event should be made accessible to all. This has ignited a debate questioning the future of poker.
Some argue that WSOP attracts a large following despite people having to pay to view the final table. Some people also believe PokerGO should not be backed into a corner about growing WSOP, especially because they have paid for the rights.
The Arguments
One of the people that joined the discussion is the former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya. Chamath agreed with Alexandra. He used the web revenue model to illustrate, noting that this model is used to grow an audience.
Offering free content, like streaming the WSOP Main Event final table, can help build a bigger audience that PokerGO and WSOP can monetize. According to Chamath, this is more profitable.
Chamath also highlighted the revenue generated by Facebook and Google, saying that free content worked for most businesses. He continued to say that poker should be accessible to many people to make more people fall in love with the game. Chamath concluded by saying it would take adding good commentary to the game to have a new Monday Night Football.
Meanwhile, Joe Ingram had something different to say. He was never biased. He noted that deciding to put a fee on a big sports event was not straightforward because it involved inputs from the rights holders, broadcasters, organizers, and financial factors.
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