WPT Makes a Profit, Gets PokerStars Sponsorship, and Continues to Lose Ground to EPT

WPT Enterprises actually made a profit in the first quarter of 2009... if you exclude the writedown of an investment and losses from a discontinued operation. The company does expect a small loss in the second quarter, however. They've substantially lowered their expenses, WPT China (the discontinued operation) was shut down in March, and they bought out the contract of spokesperson Antonio Esfandiari. Club WPT, their free online poker site, is growing, though they won't create any more branded TV shows to promote it. Discussions about a possible sale of WPT Enterprises continue.

PokerStars will pay $2.1 million to sponsor season 7 of the World Poker Tour in Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and parts of Latin America. Full Tilt Poker is the WPT's sponsor for season 7 in the US and Mexico. WPT Enterprises believes they'll be able to generate non-US revenues that are at least twice the size of the US ones (Full Tilt Poker paid $3.25 million for their sponsorship).

Attendance at WPT events has continued to decline, however (see Poker King's analysis and our previous article), and the PokerStars-sponsored European Poker Tour has clearly surpassed it as the world's leading poker tour (the WSOP seems undecided if they want to be a tour/league or a championship). PokerStars already dominates the tournament poker world outside the US (read about their other tours). If they gained control of the WPT they would control most of the world's major tournaments other than the WSOP. WPT season 8 doesn't have a sponsor yet.

WPT Enterprises also inked another deal for a non-televised European tournament with an online poker room sponsor, this one in Slovakia (we've previously mentioned Morocco, Cyprus, Barcelona, and Venice).

For further information see the earnings press release, earnings call transcript, PokerStars sponsorship press release, quarterly financial statement, and our recent WPT articles.

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