Poker Writer
The poker world is excited about the upcoming National Heads-Up Poker Championship, but podcaster Derek Kwan has raised some important questions about the best way to promote and market the competition to attract a more mainstream audience to poker.
Kwan, a Los Angeles-based poker player who co-hosts the LA Poker Roundup lit the fuse on Friday by posting his thoughts on X about the recently announced return of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Much debate stemmed from his post, which has gained over 63,000 views, with several people on both sides of the aisle, both agreeing and disagreeing with Kwan.
PokerScout reached out to Kwan, who has nearly $1 million in career tournament poker earnings according to the Card Player archives.
He had some additional thoughts to share:
In order for poker to get back into the mainstream again, we need to make poker a spectator sport again. This isn’t about getting new players, but getting new fans. With more eyeballs, we can get more sponsorships, get more mass media coverage that isn’t some sort of scandal, and lift poker up and back into legitimacy. Poker is a strategic game of skill, closer to chess than roulette. Only with more spectators can we fully get back into the mainstream.
Poker has been absent from the mainstream for several years, ever since the WSOP left ESPN after the 2019 Main Event. As Kwan alludes to, poker is only mentioned on mainstream outlets like ESPN when there is a scandal involved. Just this month, Gilbert Arenas’ arrest for allegedly running an illegal home game made the rounds, as did his subsequent sparring with Stephen A. Smith.
The considerations for an event like this change depending on whether the focus is attracting new fans or new players. Expanding the audience means making poker more of a sport and less about gambling. Kwan believes poker needs to position itself as a game of strategy like chess and be packaged similarly to high-level sports competitions.
As Kwan told PokerScout:
We need to market and structure these events to attract spectators, not just poker players to watch more poker content
PokerGO and PokerStars Promotion of the Event
The National Heads-Up Poker Championship, on its surface, seems like it would satisfy that desire. It’s a one-on-one test of skill with a bracket loaded with the best players in the world. However, Kwan says that promotion for the event has been confusing. He doesn’t think that the organizers have capitalized as much as they could have on the opportunity and that this year’s event is unlikely to attract many viewers who weren’t already fans.
PokerGO’s Jeff Platt replied to Kwan on X to push back against the criticism. He agrees with Kwan that increasing spectatorship is one of the aims of the Championship.
This is also not just about the current poker audience…it’s getting an incredible event onto a platform that can draw in new poker fans. And creates a new, long-term relationship with NBC that I’d imagine we both agree is incredibly valuable.
However, the two differ on how to achieve that aim.
Platt explained that the reason for a lack of hype this far out is to reduce the chance of spoilers. He also clarified that the episodes will be short, as Kwan suggested they should be, and rejected the idea that Peacock—the streaming service that will host the episodes—doesn’t have enough subscribers.
Kwan is a proponent of making streams for marquee poker events free. He explained to PokerScout:
We need to use some marquee events as loss leaders via free content to attract spectators. This will also likely drive more paid subs to services like PokerGo anyway.
Different Coverage Focus
One of the topics some of the people in the discussion brought up was how poker needs to shift the focus of what is shown during coverage. Bringing back stories about players was a popular sentiment.
One X user, “NCTarwheel,” brought up one potential avenue to attract a more mainstream non-poker audience.
The best way to get “mainstream” (ie. greater % of non poker players) is to follow the reality TV model. This is why Big Brother, Americas Got Talent etc. all have the contestant “backstory” out takes. The average viewer isn’t going to watch without that emotional hook to cheer for or against someone.
Also the production needs scripting and editing like keeping results secret so episodes can have “cliff hangers”. End an episode with a shove and someone deliberating the call so people tune in next episode.
Main stream broadcasting cares about numbers, demographics and return viewers. This is the way.
That sentiment is one reason loud, dramatic characters like Will Kassouf are so polarizing. Many players would prefer their table to be relatively quiet so that they can concentrate on the game. At the same time, reality TV proves that audiences are drawn to big personalities and that even those who provoke a negative reaction are better for ratings than those who fade into the background.
Image credit: Joe Giron/WPT (license)
