Las Vegas, Nevada – March 1, 2013 – Poker Royalty announced today that Eugene Katchalov has renewed his exclusive sponsorship agreement with Poker Stars.  Eugene joins Poker Royalty clients Daniel Negreanu, David Williams, Ivan Demidov and Vanessa Rousso on Team PokerStars.

“I am thrilled to continue my relationship with Team PokerStars,” said Eugene about renewing his agreement. “PokerStars is a fantastic organization and I am excited to continue with such a select team of world-class poker players.”

Eugene Katchalov holds one of the most impressive live tournament records in poker. In his first full year as a poker pro, Eugene cashed 12 times with wins in the Bellagio Cup for over $118,000 and the Doyle Brunson Classic for over $2.5 million dollars. An even more impressive 2011 brought a total of 13 cashes, a coveted WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event and was named Bluff Magazine’s Player of the Year.

“From an endorser perspective, Eugene is the total package.  His poker resume, work ethic and charisma are second to no one,” said Brian Balsbaugh, Founder & CEO, Poker Royalty. “He’s one of the most liked players on the poker tour by his peers.  What’s the old saying? Nice guys finish last?  Well, in this case the nicest guy is being rewarded, and he certainly deserves it.”

While Eugene may be one of the nicest guys in poker, he’s also one of the most feared on the felt. With over $7,000,000 in earnings, a WSOP bracelet, and a WPT title, this poker maestro is etching his way into the record books one victory at a time.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Brian Balsbaugh

CEO and Founder

Poker Royalty, LLC

10789 West Twain Ave. #200

Las Vegas, NV  89135

Phone – 702-868-9003

Email – brian@pokerroyalty.com   

During her time at Duke, Vanessa because interested in Game Theory, which teaches how to apply complex math-based decision making strategies to everyday life. Couple that knowledge together with a lifelong love of games and it seems a natural fit that she would wind up as a poker player. Vanessa began making an impact on the live tournament circuit in 2005, developing her skills with several impressive results. A year later, she made the final table of the WPT Championship event, finishing 7th and taking home over $250,000. In the same year, Vanessa also became the youngest female player at the time to reach a World Series final table, with an 8th place finish in the $5,000 Shorthanded Borgata Poker Open, where Vanessa beat a field of 173 to win first place prize money of $285,450.

In October 2007, She finished in the main event of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker. Vanessa walked away with over $700,000. One of the biggest cash prizes in the history of online poker. In March 2009, Vanessa added another big result to her varied resume, this time in the discipline of heads-up poker. At the star-studded NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Vanessa played through a field of 64 of the world’s best players to reach the final, where she placed second for a cash of $250,000. Fresh from that score, Vanessa travelled to Monte Carlo for the EPT Grand Final with high hopes of more success. She did not disappoint, recording her biggest ever cash, winning €25,000 High Roller Event for €720,000 – a victory made sweeter by the fact that she beat 78 of the world’s best players in a star-studded tournament.

When Vanessa isn’t playing, she somehow manages to find time for many hobbies. Describing herself as something of an adrenaline junkie, she regularly goes skydiving and bungee jumping. Vanessa has also contributed strategy articles to several poker magazines.

With sizable winnings both live and online, there are surely many more titles on the horizon for Vanessa. She is a member of the Team PokerStars Pro and can be found playing in the biggest tournaments using the screen name “LadyMaverick”.

           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Las Vegas, NV – January 9, 2013 – Poker Royalty, the poker industry’s leading player representation agency, announced today that British sensation Sam Trickett has selected Poker Royalty for worldwide management and marketing representation across all major platforms, including media, sponsorship, licensing, commercial endorsements, and appearances.
            Trickett, 26, is widely regarded as one of the best professional players in recent years. After suffering a career ending knee injury as a professional footballer in 2005, Trickett took up poker during his recovery period and quickly recognized his skills at the tables. His aggressive play and lack of fear at the tables has sent Trickett to the top of the leader boards. In 2010, Sam was named Best New Player. In 2011, he was named European Poker Player of the Year and Britain’s Best Cash Game Player. Then in 2012, he dominated the British Poker Awards by winning Best Cash Game player for the second consecutive year, Best Tournament Player and Player of the year.

“Poker Royalty works with some of the biggest names in poker allowing them to create the best opportunities no other company can provide”, said Trickett. “I am very excited and honored to be working with them.”

As Europe’s all-time money leader, Sam has won over $17 million in career tournament earnings, including $10 million for his runner-up finish to Antonio Esfandiari in the 2012 WSOP event “Big One For One Drop”.  Adding to his monster tournament earnings, you can regularly find Trickett playing in the high stakes cash games in Macau.

“Sam is an immensely talented poker pro who is living the dream of every young poker player. Given our strong relationships with the world’s biggest gaming companies, Poker Royalty is ideally situated to identify the numerous poker-related sponsorship opportunities available to someone with Sam’s outstanding poker accomplishments,” said Brian Balsbaugh, Founder & CEO, Poker Royalty.”

ABOUT POKER ROYALTY: 

Founded in 2003, Poker Royalty is recognized as the leading global poker management and marketing company, representing the most talented and marketable professional poker players, including Player of the Year recipients Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith, and World Series of Poker Main Event Champions Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, and Juan Carlos Mortensen.  With offices in Las Vegas and London, Poker Royalty’s diverse poker business includes: client representation; product and brand licensing; consulting services; event management; media sales; and speaker’s bureau. For more information, please visit www.pokerroyalty.com.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Poker Royalty, LLC

10789 W. Twain, Suite 200

Las Vegas, NV  89135

Phone – 702-868-9003

In 2009, John was offered a position at Scratch Music Group in New York City, and left Poker Royalty and Las Vegas to pursue this opportunity.  As the company’s Director of Sales, John was responsible for managing a roster of over 250 of the world’s top professional DJ’s. 

John returned to Las Vegas in early 2012 to help launch eSport Management Group, a new company founded by the CEO of Poker Royalty, and is looking forward to being an integral part of the success of this new initiative.

London, UK – APRIL 17^th, 2012 – Poker Royalty announced today the signing of Norwegian female poker player Annette Obrestad for worldwide management and marketing representation across all major platforms, including sponsorship, licensing, and speaking appearances.  

With almost $4 million in career tournament earnings and a WSOP Europe Main Event bracelet, 23-year old Annette Obrestad is already widely considered one of the best female poker players in the world.  Her aggressive playing style and uncanny ability to read her fellow players make her a threat to any opponent brave enough to seat themselves at her table.

“I am thrilled to announce I am officially signed to Poker Royalty.  I have known about the company for a few years and know their positive reputation in the business is well deserved. I am relying on them to help me advance my poker career to the next level” said Annette after signing with Poker Royalty.

“Annette is without question one of the biggest names in poker and certainly one of the top few females in the world playing the game today. Poker Royalty is extremely proud & delighted to announce Annette’s signing and is looking forward to helping her cement her reputation in the game” said Jim Erwood, Director of European Operations for Poker Royalty. 

ABOUT POKER ROYALTY: 

Founded in 2003, Poker Royalty is recognized as the leading global poker management and marketing company, representing the most talented and marketable professional poker players, including Daniel Negreanu and World Series of Poker Main Event Champions Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, and Juan Carlos Mortensen.  With offices in Las Vegasand London, Poker Royalty’s diverse poker business includes: product and brand licensing; consulting services; event management; media sales; speaker’s bureau and client representation. For more information, please visit www.pokerroyalty.com.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Jim Erwood

Director of European Operations

Poker Royalty, LLC

+44 (0) 7971 673157

Email – jim@pokerroyalty.com   

Annette Obrestad was born and raised in a small town in Norway and began playing online poker at the tender age of 15.  Without depositing any of her own money, she started playing free roll tournaments and used the prize money she won to invest in buy-in tournaments, quickly working her way up to $100 tournaments.  Slowly and methodically she began to build her reputation on the virtual felt as she perfected her skills and amassed her bankroll. 

Making History

In 2007, the World Series of Poker made its way to London, and 18 year old Annette quickly put up the €10,000 buy-in for the No Limit Hold’em Championship event.  Outlasting 2 of the world’s most accomplished female players, Duke and Harman, young Obrestad found herself playing head’s up at the final table of the event.  Incredibly, she would win the tournament, and along with a payday of over 2 million dollars, she would emblazon herself in the history books as the youngest player to ever win a WSOP bracelet.

Poker Future

With almost $4 million in career tournament earnings, 23 year old Annette Obrestad is positioning herself to become the best female poker player this world has ever seen.  Her aggressive playing style and uncanny ability to read her fellow players make her a threat to any opponent brave enough to seat themselves at her table.  Keep an eye out for this trailblazer as she travels the globe collecting victories, titles, and all the spoils of being one of today’s hottest poker players.

Jennette “Jay” Tan was born in Los Angeles, California to a Chinese father and Taiwanese mother, but soon moved back to Hong Kong where she would live until the age of 4.  While her father continued to work overseas to earn a better income to fund his children’s education, Jay and her brother would relocate with their mother to Sydney, Australia where she would live until the age of 25.  After completing her Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communication and Masters of Business in Finance and Accounting, Tan moved to Hong Kong to pursue a career in investment banking. 

Self-Proclaimed Adrenaline Junkie

Jay’s love for the game of poker most certainly relates to her craving for adrenaline, and before she got involved in the game, one of her favorite pastimes was cruising around town on her Honda motorcycle.  She gained interest in poker by watching it on television, and soon began playing at home games with friends before heading straight to the cash game tables in Sydney where she would grind for hours upon hours as she sharpened her poker skills and built her bankroll.  She has since found that the development of her poker instincts are more suited to tournament-style poker, and she thoroughly enjoys the excitement of watching the clocks tick away as big stacks are built and small stacks tremble as their tournament lives come to an end.   

Poker Future

Jennette’s has already won over $60,000 in tournament play and is looking to increase that number exponentially.  Her good looks, sharp poker skills, and tri-lingual language abilities caught the eye of poker giant Bodog, and she has recently inked a deal to represent their brand.  With a big sponsorship comes big opportunity, so keep an eye out as this fearless lady of poker makes her rise to the top.

iSeriesLIVE introduces in-action betting, streamed over the Internet, with poker’s biggest names

20 March 2012 (London, England) – Poker Royalty, LLC today launches iSeriesLIVE: a ground-breaking new interactive poker series that allows consumers to watch top poker players–live with hole cards exposed–and bet on the action as it happens.

iSeriesLIVE is the next step in poker’s evolution. The series enhances the way the public watches and engages with poker events — providing viewers the opportunity to feel the same rush and excitement as the pros.

 The first event takes place in Dublin, Ireland on April 5th at 18:00 (WET). This launch event is a promotional €10,000 buy-in, winner-takes-all 10-person shootout featuring some of the biggest names in poker, including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen, and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott. Future events will include 36 person, six max no limit hold’em, heads-up tournaments, and more.

 Players will be sequestered in all iSeriesLIVE events with no access to mobile devices or outside influences. Online viewers will be able to bet on a number of real-time scenarios, including odds to win the table that change based on evolving chip stacks, next player eliminated, last longers, and the flop (red or black).

 For this promotional launch event, live betting will be offered exclusively via sportsbook giant PaddyPower in licensed and regulated markets. If you are not in a licensed PaddyPower market–such as the United States–you can still follow the action live at iSeriesLive.com.

 “For poker to continue to grow, the game needs to become more immediate to our fans,” said 11-time bracelet winner and Main Event champion Phil Hellmuth. “By allowing fans to view a poker event as it actually happens, with hole cards exposed, and bet on the action just as they would on football or horse racing, iSeriesLIVE can help take our game to the next level. Now the world will know why I’ve said ‘If it wasn’t for luck, I’d win them all’”

 Another unique element about iSeriesLIVE is the event’s financial structure. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Poker Royalty, on top of the €10,000 buy-in, winner-takes-all format, each player participating in iSeriesLIVE events will actually receive a revenue split of all money that is bet on or against them — making this the first time in poker history that all participating players have the opportunity to make money while playing in a poker tournament. 

 “After Black Friday, we were determined to find a way to add new revenue streams for our world class roster of talent.,” says Brian Balsbaugh, founder of Poker Royalty. “We are fronting the expenses, then sharing the wagering profits with the participating players.  There are countless additional ways for us to monetize this model and we look forward to rolling them out over the course of the next year. Our end goal is to pay players for playing iSeriesLIVE events.”

 Professional poker players committed to play the promotional kick-off event are Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Carlos Mortensen, Maria Ho, Tobias Reinkemeier, Marvin Rettenmaier, James Dempsey, Eoghan O’dea, and Faraz Jaka.

 For more information on iSeriesLIVE–including special promotional deposit offers and player odds–visit www.iserieslive.com.

 For special promotional deposit offers, go here (http://www.paddypower.com/bet/poker/iserieslive?AFF_ID=10064867). 

About Poker Royalty

Founded in 2003, Poker Royalty is recognized as the leading global poker management and marketing company, representing dozens of the most talented and marketable professional poker players, including Daniel Negreanu, World Series of Poker Main Event Champions Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, and Juan Carlos Mortensen. With offices in Las Vegas and London, Poker Royalty’s diverse poker business includes: product and brand licensing; consulting services; event management; media sales; speaker’s bureau and client representation. For more information, please visit www.pokerroyalty.com.

For further press information, images or event related quotes, please contact:

john@iserieslive.com / 702-868-9003 or European Press Contact, Peter Ramsay: pramsay@livingitlovingit.com / +44 (0)1752 231825

In the middle of the poker boom in 2004 I had the highest ranking executive at Party Poker on the phone and he was on fire. He had a fever and the only prescription that could cure it: new depositing players. “Brian, I’ll allocate as much money as you want for any project as long as you can show me a positive ROI based on new player sign-ups,” he told me.

I’ve learned that one axiom about the online poker business has always held true: In order to be successful, an online poker room needs a consistent influx of new depositing players.

There are many different philosophies about how to attract those new players, but there is no question that one single strategy has been the most successful. Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars captured roughly 75% of the online poker market by utilizing pro poker players to generate new customers.

At Poker Royalty, we’ve always believed that a pro poker player’s sponsorship value is determined by his or her ability to bring in new customers. Black Friday has changed our opinion on a lot of issues, but not this one.

High profile pro players create content, which is then broadly distributed and becomes a successful new player acquisition strategy. For example, PokerStars hired a team of poker players, purchased television time and paid for the production of its poker television shows. The show generates sign ups, site analytics allow them to identify a positive ROI and the project gets funded over and over. It worked in 2004 and it has worked every year since. That is the tried and true, time tested method of delivering that consistent influx of new depositing players.

Party Poker has managed to avoid hiring the team of pro poker players, but employs a similar strategy. Instead of allocating its budget to team pro’s, Party acquired the World Poker Tour in 2009 for over twelve million dollars and successfully gets high profile players to participate in its popular Party Poker Premier League. They are creating poker content to attract new customers. For that matter, the WSOP real money gaming site marketing strategy is similar as well- They are Selling the Dream of winning a title and becoming a rich and famous poker player.

In addition, the non-televised content created by high profile poker players is also a viable new customer acquisition strategy. To his credit, in 2001 my client Daniel Negreanu recognized the need to reach his fans and launched his personal website FullContactPoker.com which hosts his blogs, forums and videos. That has proven invaluable to him and his sponsors over the years in attracting new customers.

Like Daniel realized in 2001, new media platforms allow greater connectivity and ability to reach fans–and potential customers. With Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, it’s easier than ever for poker players to reach the masses. Because of this, the potential ROI those players can bring an online operator is also greater than it has ever been.

Not all poker players bring value to an online poker room and that is why Poker Royalty has always only worked with the players who we felt could add new customers. Some agencies have taken a more “quantity over quality” approach to signing poker players to management contracts, but that didn’t square with our core belief. Yes, in the short-term Black Friday hurt a player’s ability to land a sponsorship deal. But in the post-apocalyptic online poker world, the pros who can attract new players will be big, big winners.