Over $7 million juiced from WSOP ME. How to turn poker from a negative to a positive sum game.

Caesars Entertainment bested Jordan Griff to come in 2nd in the WSOP main event by raking $7,078,400 off the prize pool.

Niche activities like the Winter X games, Mr. Olympia, and World's Strongest Man contest are somehow able to produce shows and pay out prize money without entry fees. As poker players we like to think of ourselves as smart, but for whatever reason we get back less money than we put into our major events. Have the competitors in those other events outsmarted us?

The obvious reason why all those other events are positive sum activities is because of sponsorship money. The opportunities for sponsorship of major poker tournaments seems substantial. Online sites, casinos, tourism boards like the LVCA, and aspirational brands like Rolex & Cadillac all seem like natural fits for a big money televised/streamed poker event. Yet, event after event, poker players keep paying juice and a portion of us are busted out because of it.

Every year there is speculation from the poker community over which ME final table member will be best for poker, but imo there's almost no chance the positive effect of a good champion will outweigh the negative effect of the irrepressible grind of rake. $7 million is a lot to cover in sponsorship money. A competing tournament, however, with a capped number of buy-ins and by consequence capped expenses to run seems like the perfect opportunity to have sponsorship cover the costs of dealers, tv production etc. and maybe even add some money to the prize pool. If a series of these events were held it might not lead to another poker boom, but with extra money coming into the poker economy it does figure to lead to some degree of sustained growth.