Monday, August 25, 2008

The WPT's Decline And The EPT's Rise

Ryan Lucchesi has an interesting piece on CardPlayer.com that documents the decline in attendance at World Poker Tour events and the rise at European Poker Tour events:
  • WPT season five to six: 510 per event to 411 per event
  • EPT season three to four: 435 per event to 537 per event
Lucchesi frames it as a function of the maturity of poker in the different markets, but it isn't, at least not entirely. PokerPages's Industry Index indicates that tournament volume is stable in the United States, meaning that the industry other than the WPT is growing. It's at least partly a problem with the WPT, not the market they compete in. Their move to Fox Sports Net from GSN could be a big boon to the World Poker Tour however.
Posted by Self Made at Monday, August 25, 2008
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3 comments:

  1. Poker King adds to the parade of WPT doom and gloom articles:

    ... pushing the stock of the World Poker Tour down to 61 cents per share. The entire company is worth just $12.42 million dollars, a far cry from the half billion dollar valuation that the company commanded back in the summer of 2005.

    The World Poker Tour received a Nasdaq delisting notice in mid August due to their common stock trading under $1.00 for 30 consecutive business days.

    The company will likely be forced into a reverse split in order to maintain compliance if things don't turn around over the next few months, which looks unlikely.

    Will the company go under? Or will they eventually be taken over by another company? If so, who? At this stage of the game, these seem like the only two viable options for the World Poker Tour.
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  2. Lyle Berman bankrolled the World Poker Tour. Now his company Lakes Entertainment is dividending out its 61% ownership interest in the WPT to its shareholders. WPTE stock is down to 50 cents.
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  3. Poker News Daily adds their piece on the subject. They point out how the WPT cut their own throats to some extent, by starting their own online poker room and consequently losing important events sponsored by UltimateBet and PokerStars. Additionally, online poker rooms can no longer buy qualifiers directly into WPT events.
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