The days of poker pros being sponsored by online poker sites are dwindling. Many poker sites have ended their sponsorship arrangements with poker professionals. Full Tilt recently ended their agreements with poker pros Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom and the poker room parted ways with top poker pro Tom Dwan some months ago.
Full Tilt Poker is not the only online poker site to end sponsorship relationships with poker pros. Party Poker recently cut their ties with poker pro Marvin Rettenmaier. Ultimate Poker ended their sponsorship of poker pros Phil Collins, Jason Somerville and others while PokerStars decided to end their contracts with Joe Cada, Marcel Luske, Humberto Brenes and other poker professionals.
The decision by online poker sites to end sponsorship deals with poker pros is no surprise and is actually long overdue. The online poker rooms didn’t get much out of the arrangements as the poker pros rarely played at the online sites and didn’t attract much of a following. Online poker sites found the arrangements were not cost effective and decided that advertising dollars would be better spent in other venues.
Some online poker sites still have limited arrangements with leading poker pros but for the most part the days of poker pros getting sweet deals with online poker sites are over.
