Harrah's denies breach of WSOP contract claims
US casino giant Harrah's has responded to claims it breached its WSOP sponsorship agreement with Everest Poker by allowing Full Tilt logos to replace Everest's in a 2009 French TV broadcast of the WSOP.
World Series of Poker (WSOP) owner Harrah’s has denied allegations it breached its US$22.5m sponsorship agreement with Everest Poker. WSOP has been accused of allowing Full Tilt’s logos to appear in place of Everest’s in a French TV broadcast of the tournament.
Everest Poker owner Ultra Internet Media (UIM) moved on 1 April to cancel the final US$8.4m payment of its three-year deal after an ESPN affiliate in Europe, RTL9, electronically replaced Everest Poker’s logos with those of Full Tilt’s on the 2009 broadcast of the WSOP. UIM is arguing this breached the deal it entered into for its logo to appear on broadcasts of the tournament, on the felt of every poker table and the inner rung of the WSOP final table.
In its response to UIM’s lawsuit in filings published by the Las Vegas Sun on Monday, Harrah’s attorneys argued Everest Poker signed the deal to gain US exposure, and that this did not require the event be broadcast into any particular country, with France not even mentioned in the agreement.
Harrah’s attorneys also stated UIM did not have an online gaming licence recognised by French authorities at the time of negotiating the contract. “It was broadly observed that poker programming was not distributed by French television stations unless tournaments were sponsored by a French licensee,” said the reported statement.
Harrah’s also stated in the filing that in 2007 and 2008, the WSOP was shown via broadcast affiliates in more than 170 countries to over 250 million households for in excess of 6,000 hours. The casino giant argued that UIM had “certainly gained all the exposure for the EverestPoker.net website that it could have hoped for, and more,” according to the newspaper.
In addition, after UIM expressed concerns about the French broadcasts last year, Harrah’s said an arrangement was agreed under which ESPN would contract a broadcaster for coverage of the WSOP in Spain and Italy, where the combined viewers would be about the same as France, at no additional cost to UIM and Everest Poker, said the filing. Harrah’s also stated that it was agreed that Everest Poker would subsequently be described as the presenting sponsor of the WSOP during the broadcasts in certain European countries, but not France.
Everest Poker paid US$6.2 million for the 2008 tournament sponsorship and $7.9 million for the 2009 edition, and was due to pay US$8.4 million for this year’s tournament, which gets underway in May at Harrah’s Rio resort in Las Vegas.
The case continues.
US casino giant Harrah’s has responded to claims it breached its WSOP sponsorship agreement with Everest Poker by allowing Full Tilt logos to replace Everest’s in a 2009 French TV broadcast of the WSOP.