Nov 16 2011
PokerStars and Betfair add new sponsored pros
written by: Steve under News Comments: Comments Off
In the aftermath of Black Friday you were far more likely to see online poker rooms trimming their rosters than adding to them, but now over six-months after that infamous day it seems the online poker sites have decided to once again start rewarding the game’s top performers with sponsorship deals.
Just before the final table of the World Series of Poker PokerStars made one of the biggest signings in quite some time, inking eventual WSOP Champion Pius Heinz to a sponsorship deal, and now the site has added to its Team PokerStars Sports roster with the addition of Gold Medal skier Marcus Hellner of Sweden.
Hellner joins an impressive roster of superstars in the world of sports who wear the PokerStars patch at tournaments around the world, including Boris Becker, Sebastien Chabal, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Gigi Buffon, and Gaulter Salles.
PokerStars wasn’t the only site adding to their sponsorship roster this week. On Monday Betfair announced it had inked a deal with sports-bettor turned poker pro Hans Martin Vogl of Germany (perhaps anticipating a rush of new German poker players thanks to Mr. Heinz’s accomplishment at the WSOP) best known for his final table appearance at the Aussie Million in 2007. For his career Vogl has pocketed an impressive $400k, despite playing a very limited number of tournaments.
We’ll also be hearing from PKR Poker later this week, as the site has sent out preemptive press releases announcing a major signing on the 17th.
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