Drive to Survive. The Last Dance. Full Swing. Sports such as Formula One, basketball and golf have all enjoyed renewed success by engaging fans via behind-the-scenes Netflix documentaries and allowing access to content creators that directly connect to a new demographic..
This approach could serve to strengthen the hand of poker, as it looks to enjoy similar success by opening its doors to the new world of digital content creation, according to industry experts speaking at the SBC Casino Digital Day.
Reflecting on the success of documentaries such as Formula One’s Drive to Survive, which has helped boost the sport to a valuation of £13.8bn ($17.1bn), André Nazemi, CEO of NoLimitPoker: “We’ve seen the Netflix series Drive to Survive or the UFC and how they talk to personalities and follow them. It’s very important. You want to idolise rock stars, Formula One drivers, fighters, whoever.
“If you find a way to do it on the poker tables with the teams and the characters off the tables, you can see the emotions and the lifestyle. You could have so many interesting people that you could make a great show on Netflix, and it would be very popular.”
Brett Calapp, Founder of Shadowfox, agreed that it is essential to lean into storytelling to engage a younger audience that is increasingly faced with thousands of entertainment avenues vying for their attention.
He also noted that 20 years ago, poker tournaments enjoyed widespread TV coverage in the US on mainstream television networks such as CBS, and players signed sponsorship deals with internationally recognised brands such as Pepsi and Nike.
“You need to bring back that fascination with the players and the characters,” said Calapp. “You don’t see it anymore, and that’s what I think the problem is. You can’t compare yourself with players.
“You want to be like Phil Ivey, you want to bluff like Gus Hansen, and you want to beat these people. They’re gone, and you don’t see those personalities anymore. You need to bring that back.”
An operator that has lent into the new norm is BetMGM. In March, the MGM Resorts and Entain joint venture signed Abby Merk as a brand ambassador and content partner.
Alongside competing on the professional poker circuit, Merk, 24, documents her poker journey to more than 22,000 subscribers on YouTube and 87,000 Instagram followers.
On the partnership, Will O’Conner, Senior Manager of Poker Marketing at BetMGM, told the panel: “It’s a win-win for operator and creator and then the community at large. [Merk] is such a fantastic story, and we almost needed her to unlock certain things.
“We see the future growing and evolving from these individual creators that are putting in the time and effort to build their own brands and the game at large. If we can help in that sense, and it makes sense for the operator and player, we’re all in.”
O’Conner added that while poker has established strong coverage for hardcore poker fans through streaming, the sport “needs to find itself within this new media landscape” via the use of content creators such as Merk.
“Poker may have lost its voice when it comes to storytelling and some of the characters but it comes down to the operators working with these creators and players and giving them opportunities to create in these spaces and giving them the correct environment to do it and tell these stories in the modern way,” he concluded.
“If we are able to do that, then those good creators will cut through that noise and they’ll integrate themselves into that noise.”
You can watch the full webinar by clicking here.
