Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006

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WPT founder urges poker rooms to stay grassroots

By Erin Warner

Draw in customers using tournament promotions and celebrity players, World Poker Tour Enterprises CEO Steve Lipscomb advised executives at the Las Vegas Global Gaming Expo.

With so much competition in the industry, poker rooms need to create a buzz, Lipscomb told delegates at the annual gaming conference.

Run tournaments that include satellites to World Poker Tour events, he said, and feature special appearances by famous poker pros - many of whom agree to the publicity because they have books and DVDs to promote.

Lipscomb also suggested hosting large annual poker tournaments with weekly satellite events to draw high-rolling live game players.

"What you can do are these grass-roots kind of things, that will have more of a payoff for your property," said Lipscomb, according to a "Las Vegas Sun" article on his presentation.

With so many new brands, Lipscomb said he would hate to have to launch the World Poker Tour, now into Season 5, in today's market.

"Candidly, I wouldn't launch the business today, because the opportunity isn't there, with two large brands in the marketplace and three or four others that are kind of struggling to keep going," he said.

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