UltimateBet Team Gets More Than a Poker Player with Sebok

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UltimateBet Team Gets More Than a Poker Player with Sebok

September 25th, 2009 Tim Resnik Leave a comment Go to comments

Signing a poker player to an online poker room sponsorship roster goes far beyond results at the table. UltimateBet understands this and has signed Joe Sebok for more reasons than his ability on the felt. Sure, Sebok has had some good results with over $1.5 million in lifetime earnings, and a steallar 2006 where he earned nearly $900,000, but he lacks major victories and big final tables. But who cares? UB doesn’t.

Sebok Signs with UltimateBet

UltimateBet has been wooing Sebok for months, and for good reason. What Sebok lacks in superstar results he makes up in charisma, likability and an understanding for new media that other poker players just don’t have. When Sebok made a deep run this year in the WSOP Main Event I decided to follow his updates on Twitter, and was floored when I saw he had over 300,000 followers. That number today is over 800,000 and is on par with the most followed people on Twitter; watch out Ashton Kutcher. In fact, @JoeSebok ranks 173rd on the most followed list. I have no clue how this happened, but rumor has it that he has a connection at the company who listed him on the “suggested” list. Some crazy positive viral loop is in effect because in April 2009 he only had about 60,000.

Regardless if he has connections or not, the fact is that he has established himself, and consequently PokerRoad, as a serious brand across the socialsphere, and for this, I am sure UltimateBet sees an invaluable asset in Sebok. This is probably why they have also signed him as a media consultant.

I have argued the point that this is good for UB. Now is it good for Sebok? In reality, that comes down to how much he is getting paid, and I hope it is a lot. Sebok has established himself as a leader in online poker media (and online media itself) and this move exposes him to the risk of crossing the editorial/advertising line by using his online brand to promote a poker site. Especially a poker site that has had some negative exposure in the area unethical practices.

My suggestion for Sebok would be to come out of the gate with a casual and indirect promotional approach. Wear the UB logo at tournaments and promotional events, but be careful of pushing too hard and skuffing up that finely polished online image.

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