On January 1, 1998 Planet Poker dealt what was the first online Poker hand to be played for real money. Its hard to believe that was almost 12 years ago, but when you look at what Poker has become since that day its truly staggering. The game formerly relegated to smokey back rooms and casinos has become part of our collective culture. ESPN, Bravo and even NBC televise live tournaments. Many businesses that are not brick and mortar casinos have leveraged the games popularity into a lot of money. It could be argued that Poker’s online success was a given. But did anyone see the rise of Poker celebrities coming? Did Daniel Negraneau and Annie Duke know that one day they would be famous for playing the game? I’m pretty confident in saying no.
As our lives become more and more connected through social media its logical to think that “real” people will continue to emerge as celebrities. We will always have those like the infamous “Balloon Boy”, but people who earn their celebrity by being the best at what they do will also emerge. So where will these people come from? What will be their spring board to fame? In the “sporting” world I would suggest that there is no need to look beyond upstart GamingStars.com.
What Planet Poker did for Poker, Gaming Stars is about to do for video games. Imagine being able to connect via existing game platform communities (XBox Live and the Playstation Network) and play for real money and real fame. Well imagine no more, because this is now reality. And its 100% legal in most countries (see a list of excluded US States here). By offering competiton only on skill based games (they currently are supporting most EA Sports titles, HALO 3 and Call of Duty 4) Gaming Stars takes the “chance” out of competition. Their betting guidelines are what you’d expect: you must be 18 years or older to wager and there is a small, as low as 5%, fee charged on each wager. What makes this all really interesting is that the company has secured back end access to the gaming platforms communities that allows them to verify results in the event of a discrepancy between players.
The site is currently in BETA, and gamers can try the service out for free. In the next month they will be in full release and the site will be supported with social media tools that will showcase the top money earners and ultimately the most successful online video game players and gamblers in the world (or at least those brave enough to step out from behind their headsets and put their money where their mouth is).
So what do you think? Will this shot at cold hard cash and worldwide bragging rights be enough to launch a new breed of celebrity? Will the next sports celebrities be made in living rooms and not on the playing fields?
© 2009 Simon Pure Marketing Inc. All rights reserved.
The Next Sports Celebrities Will Not Be Athletes.
On January 1, 1998 Planet Poker dealt what was the first online Poker hand to be played for real money. Its hard to believe that was almost 12 years ago, but when you look at what Poker has become since that day its truly staggering. The game formerly relegated to smokey back rooms and casinos has become part of our collective culture. ESPN, Bravo and even NBC televise live tournaments. Many businesses that are not brick and mortar casinos have leveraged the games popularity into a lot of money. It could be argued that Poker’s online success was a given. But did anyone see the rise of Poker celebrities coming? Did Daniel Negraneau and Annie Duke know that one day they would be famous for playing the game? I’m pretty confident in saying no.
As our lives become more and more connected through social media its logical to think that “real” people will continue to emerge as celebrities. We will always have those like the infamous “Balloon Boy”, but people who earn their celebrity by being the best at what they do will also emerge. So where will these people come from? What will be their spring board to fame? In the “sporting” world I would suggest that there is no need to look beyond upstart GamingStars.com.
What Planet Poker did for Poker, Gaming Stars is about to do for video games. Imagine being able to connect via existing game platform communities (XBox Live and the Playstation Network) and play for real money and real fame. Well imagine no more, because this is now reality. And its 100% legal in most countries (see a list of excluded US States here). By offering competiton only on skill based games (they currently are supporting most EA Sports titles, HALO 3 and Call of Duty 4) Gaming Stars takes the “chance” out of competition. Their betting guidelines are what you’d expect: you must be 18 years or older to wager and there is a small, as low as 5%, fee charged on each wager. What makes this all really interesting is that the company has secured back end access to the gaming platforms communities that allows them to verify results in the event of a discrepancy between players.
The site is currently in BETA, and gamers can try the service out for free. In the next month they will be in full release and the site will be supported with social media tools that will showcase the top money earners and ultimately the most successful online video game players and gamblers in the world (or at least those brave enough to step out from behind their headsets and put their money where their mouth is).
So what do you think? Will this shot at cold hard cash and worldwide bragging rights be enough to launch a new breed of celebrity? Will the next sports celebrities be made in living rooms and not on the playing fields?