Coinpoker Signs Aussie Pro Campbell As Ambassador
For Robert Campbell, last year seemed to be a success. The Australian professional poker player and esports businessman earned more than $753,000 in live poker tournaments alone and became the World Series of Poker’s 2019 Player of the Year.
The beginning of his 2020 looks to be just as exciting, as CoinPoker just signed him as one of their few company ambassadors.
What is CoinPoker?
The innovative online poker site debuted in 2018. Its website describes it as a “revolutionary platform that uses blockchain technology to address key issues in the online poker industry.”
Using cryptocurrency as the basis for all transactions, CoinPoker allows players to deposit and withdraw funds in CHP currency, which is dedicated especially to poker and sports betting.
The creation of CoinPoker was a response to the difficulty in accessing real-money online poker from various countries around the world. From America to Australia, governments began to restrain online poker players through bans or nationalized regulation. This made it nearly impossible for players to compete against others on a global basis as was popular during the poker boom in the 2000s.
CoinPoker was a way to combine players’ love of poker with the newest technology and cryptocurrency.
Previous Poker Player Involvement
Two well-known poker pros have been involved with CoinPoker for some time.
Isabelle Mercier has been in the poker business as a player and businesswoman for more than 15 years. The Canadian native earned more than $1.2 million in her tournament poker years, but she also made quite a lot of money in the online poker realm. She now represents CoinPoker as an ambassador and chief community manager.
Antanas Guoga, better known to most in poker as Tony G, is also a longtime poker player who previously owned an online poker site and poker news company. The Lithuanian has earned more than $7.2 million in live poker to date. Tony G now serves as an advisor to CoinPoker.
Simonin Owen is also a CoinPoker ambassador, but he is not well-known in the poker community. Rather, he is a blockchain and crypto enthusiast and entrepreneur.
Enter WSOP Player of the Year
On February 10, Aussie poker pro and 2019 WSOP Player of the Year Robert Campbell officially joined the company as its latest ambassador.
CoinPoker detailed Campbell’s longtime love of cards, his first years of playing at Crown Casino in Melbourne, and his 2019 successes.
The blog post also noted that Campbell owns his own esports team called Neon Esports. It is a Southeast Asian DOTA 2 team based in the Philippines that has been competing internationally since 2016. Not only will Campbell be promoting CoinPoker when he plays live poker tournaments, his esports team will promote the brand at their competitions as well.
“We are very pleased to see such a prominent poker player join as our ambassador,” the post read. “Together, we will be delivering some exciting promotions throughout 2020.”
Campbell has earned more than $1.3 million in live tournament poker, though his online poker earnings are not known.
First Poker Promotion Already on Tap
The first promotion featuring Campbell is called the “Rob Campbell Bike Ride.” The name is derived from a phrase often used by Tony G, as this was previously his promotion. Nevertheless, the online poker tournament takes place every Sunday with Campbell playing a starring role beginning on February 16.
Players can buy in to the event for 10,000 CHP, though satellites offer bargain buy-ins as low as 100 CHP. CoinPoker guarantees a prize pool of one million CHP. Campbell will be the newest bounty player, meaning anyone who knocks him out of the tournament wins 0.25BTC. Mercier is also a bounty worth 0.1BTC.
Branching Out
There are not nearly as many sponsorship opportunities in poker as there were in the 2000s for the reasons mentioned earlier. There are even fewer opportunities to combine poker with another passion. Campbell seems to have found the perfect mix.
Campbell was familiar with cryptocurrency and its tie-ins with poker. He noted as much upon the announcement of his sponsorship:
“CoinPoker is an attractive proposition which makes poker accessible, transparent and decentralized, and it is exciting that it allows you to play with BTC, ETH, or CHP. CoinPoker is not fully decentralized, only the RNG (random number generator) is. Players can impact the shuffle and verify it’s all fair. I’m also excited about the marketing crossover opportunities between CoinPoker and Neon Esports.”
The merging of Campbell’s poker and esports passions with an online poker sponsorship with a cryptocurrency base seems like an ideal fit.
Such a sponsorship also seems like a solid choice for CoinPoker as well, especially considering Campbell’s reputation and recent poker tournament notoriety, not to mention his esports connections.
