With the Tournament of Champions on the horizon, should people who staked a player who won a qualifying event expect a piece of the action?
The Tournament of Champions starts next week and it has prompted an interesting discussion about staking.
Kasey Lyn Mills, who won two WSOP-C Rings back-to-back to qualify for the event, pondered what obligation she has to her previous backers in this freeroll event. If somebody bought 5% of her first WSOP-C win, what percentage, if any, should they get in the TOC?
How much should backers get in TOC?
— Kasey Lyn Mills (@PokerMommaa) May 14, 2024
It’s a fair question. After all, were it not for the backers in her initial WSOP-C win, she might not have qualified.
Like all things in staking, if this wasn’t discussed before the original event, then there is no obligation to give away any piece in the TOC. There have been so many scandals and disputes in staking deals, they always come down to not fleshing out the details ahead of time.
Where did the promo money come from?
There are lots of additional promotional prizes that come to tournament winners. Things like leaderboard prizes and last longer promotions. I think there is a clear-cut split in these cases. If the promotion prize pool has come out of the tournament prize pool, then the backers are due a piece of any additional prizes. If the promotion prize pool is separate, then the backers should get nothing.
For example, over the years online poker rooms have held ‘last longer’ promotions for satellite qualifiers. The satellite qualifier that busts out last gets an extra prize, direct from the online operator. The money has not been taken from the normal prize pool, so if somebody sells action, they should not be obligated to give a piece of that prize to backers.
However, the World Poker Tour awards winners of events with WPT Championship seats, and that comes directly from the prize pool of the tournament they won. In that instance, if a backer had a piece, part of their buy-in went towards that seat, so they should be entitled to the equivalent percentage.
The Tournament of Champions, as I understand it, is not funded by the prize pools of the tournaments that qualify for it, so there is no obligation there at all. Having said that, I do think it is a nice long-term gesture to give any backers from the qualifying event a small sweat (or the offer of a piece at no markup) as a thank you.
What do you think of this issue? Let us know in the comments:
