Pool's Spin Doctor
Pools Spin Doctor PUN INTENDED.
one of them won the world championship (WSOP main event) and a ton of money.
Per elaborates
Definition of a spin doctor; A person responsible for ensuring that others interpret something from a particular point of view. So how does this apply to what Per Hagen, once voted one of the worlds top 20 «most influential people» by BLUFF Magazine, is now trying to achieve in the pool world? (BLUFF Magazine, the worlds leading poker magazine) To give this context, we have to go back to 2007. That’s the year Per decided to start a management agency forprofessional poker players.He could see that poker was booming, but the "sport" was lacking in professionalism. Mainstream media was not quite sure how much air time they should devote to this new phenomena. It was all very messy. Companies was throwing good money after bad ambassadors, and the way they marketed their own brand was somewhat lacking. The agency Per founded had a clear
22 | Billiards Buzz • March 2020
mission; they would sign the best up and comers, coupled with some already established stars. But they would only get signed if they fulfilled the strict requirements to what it actually means to be a brand ambassador. Slowly, but surely they signed a few up and coming poker professionals. Only 6 months into the venture,
It was quite surrealistic, I was actually negotiating with 3 separate brands about a sponsorship deal for our player while the player was playing the final table! Normally, the WSOP winner did not get a great sponsorship deal automatically. But we had already built up the name of this player during our first 6 months. This included both media attention and a lot of followers already. That meant that when, and it was only a matter of when, this player made a big result, we could negotiate on quite different terms compared to if an unknown would have won. We also know that this player was willing to put in the work as an ambassador, and could therefore guarantee the sponsor a great return on their investment. Long story short, the player got a deal worth $500 000 per year + all expens-
