US Open 9-ball updates thread..

[realkingcobra]

If you were smarter than you THINK you are, then you'd see the correlating right away!!!

Here's something for you to think about, since you think you're so smart!

Worldwide Sports and Games Live streaming of the BURGER KING WORLD CUP! 16 of the highest rated Fargo based players on the planet will be playing in a round robin 9B event on such and such days in the month of what ever.

The players will be playing for their share of $1.2M in prize money.

9B, race to 21, 3 hr match time limit, 2 rounds of play a day. All players will be required to compete against all other players over an 8 day time period. 2 matches a day, 7 days, final match on the 8th day.

Players will be competing for $10K in prize money per match, to be divided up between both players based on the combined total wins of both players.

This event will be able for be viewed at a cost of $25.99 in its entirety, but viewers will be limited to viewing from only 2 devices at one time.

Play will take place on 8 9ft Diamond tables, and all tables will be streamed simultaneously.

If you want to watch live, the ppv is $20 but if you want to go back and watch any matches you missed, that will require the $5.99 subscription service monthly.

So, while signing up for this event, you will be asked do you want the monthly subscription? If yes, check the box, enter your credit card information, if not, leave the box blank.

Do you want to watch this event live? If yes, click the box, the fee is $20. But before you click pay, you'll be asked do you have any redemption codes you which to enter for free viewing?

You get the FREE viewing by buying a whopper meal from Berger King, then entering your recipe number and email address. Then you'll recieve an email with your free promo code you can enter instead of having to pay that $20 PPV.

But keep in mind, that only gets you the live coverage, not the video on demand!!

 

[realkingcobra]

If only 1M people from the world of viewers elects to watch this event, Burger King makes $7M in world wide sales against $1.2M in advertising dollars spent!
Thats a pretty cheap advertising platform compared to what the Parent company of Burger King spends on advertising, none of which drives the customers to buy their products!

At the same time, Burger King's parent company Restaurant Brands International saw an increase in global ad expenditures of roughly 65 million dollars, reaching 858 million in 2019.Sep 20, 2021

 

[realkingcobra]

Don't think i'm smarter than anybody. One thing i don't do is waste time/effort/breath on something that's not going to happen. You choose to do so. Apparently for an absurd amount of time. Either get this thing going or go away. NO ONE on this forum believes for ONE second its ever going to happen.

Still think you know something about ADVERTISING????

 

[realkingcobra]

Here's one of the problems I'm facing, the advertisers I'm in talks with, don't want one off events, they want to advertise for a full year of events!!!

 

[Poolplaya9]

<snip>
Second, in order for any player to win any of the added sponsorship money, they must first be registered with the world pool players association, based on their current Fargo rating a the time of the event. 600 and below $25, 601- 699 $50 700-775 $100 775+ $200
<snip>
If you're an unknown player, have no Fargo rating coming into this event, you can't buy a higher registration than an amateur can, so even if you go all the way and win the event, you can only win the amount of prize money your registration fee relates to, here's the break down.

$16,000 $200 registration wins $16,000. A $100 registration wins 75%. A $50 registration wins 50% and a $25 registration wins 25%.
<snip>

You don't seem to open to outside ideas and input but I have a couple comments for you to hopefully consider anyway.

First, I'm not sure about paying out a percentage of the prize for your placement in the tournament based on your Fargo rating. It has some benefits, like helping to discourage sandbagging as you mentioned, but I'm not sure that is going to be an issue anyway as there is really no incentive for the players to sandbag for this tournament to begin with that I can see. Plus, any player capable of winning or perhaps even cashing in this event is almost certain to have a very established Fargo anyway. On the flip side, it has some big cons, like players with a legitimate Fargo rating being highly pissed that they are only getting a percentage of their payout if they happen to perform well and snap off the event (or cash if you are doing the same thing for any cash placement and not just first). If Billy Thorpe (773 Fargo) has a great event and snaps it off, only to get paid 75% of the prize, he is going to be 8 kinds of pissed, and a whole bunch of the other players and the pool fans are going to near riot and think it is the dumbest thing ever too. I would suggest running this idea past a whole bunch of pros and fans before seriously considering this.

If you do end up sticking with a reduced percentage prize payout for those that don't meet a a certain Fargo rating threshold anyway, then I suggest still leaving the entry fees the same for everybody. Nobody is special, so everybody pays the same amount, and you certainly don't want to penalize performance by charging the better players a higher entry fee to play in an event like this that is supposed to have the very best in the world. If you just have to have different entry fee amounts based on Fargo anyway, then I suggest reversing it, and having the lowest rated players pay the highest entry fee, and the highest rated players pay the lowest entry fee. This rewards skill and accomplishment, and it also further helps to dissuade sandbagging if you really think that is a potential issue.

 

[realkingcobra]

You don't seem to open to outside ideas and input but I have a couple comments for you to hopefully consider anyway.

First, I'm not sure about paying out a percentage of the prize for your placement in the tournament based on your Fargo rating. It has some benefits, like helping to discourage sandbagging as you mentioned, but I'm not sure that is going to be an issue anyway as there is really no incentive for the players to sandbag for this tournament to begin with that I can see. Plus, any player capable of winning or perhaps even cashing in this event is almost certain to have a very established Fargo anyway. On the flip side, it has some big cons, like players with a legitimate Fargo rating being highly pissed that they are only getting a percentage of their payout if they happen to perform well and snap off the event (or cash if you are doing the same thing for any cash placement and not just first). If Billy Thorpe (773 Fargo) has a great event and snaps it off, only to get paid 75% of the prize, he is going to be 8 kinds of pissed, and a whole bunch of the other players and the pool fans are going to near riot and think it is the dumbest thing ever too. I would suggest running this idea past a whole bunch of pros and fans before seriously considering this.

If you do end up sticking with a reduced percentage prize payout for those that don't meet a a certain Fargo rating threshold anyway, then I suggest still leaving the entry fees the same for everybody. Nobody is special, so everybody pays the same amount, and you certainly don't want to penalize performance by charging the better players a higher entry fee to play in an event like this that is supposed to have the very best in the world. If you just have to have different entry fee amounts based on Fargo anyway, then I suggest reversing it, and having the lowest rated players pay the highest entry fee, and the highest rated players pay the lowest entry fee. This rewards skill and accomplishment, and it also further helps to dissuade sandbagging if you really think that is a potential issue.

First, the registration fee is not an entry fee. Second, the tournament is based on established entry fees already, as well as their payouts. My bonus payout is on TOP of what the event is going to be paying out, its NOT the grand total payout. Who ever wins first place is certainly going to get that events 1st place pay out. My sponsorship added money is to help strengthen the top 16 players without taking away the pay from the lower cash winners to create a top heavy payout.

 

[realkingcobra]

The problem entry fee based events is that in order to pay the top more, the entry fees have to be increased, making it unaffordable at the bottom, thats counterproductive. And for the most part, the top 8 are trying to earn a living, but don't actually earn that much with the payouts as they are.

The registration fee is to keep track of members of the world professional pool players association, as a head count if you will, for the advertisers in order to track growth, that and it helps to support that non-profit organization which is fighting for them to become a real sport.

 

[realkingcobra]

And here's something to think about. With an established sponsorship amount, divided up by the top 16 winners, the real pros are more likely to show up because they're looking at that pay scale instead of what the event pays out for the top 16. If a Pro had a shot at winning $16,000 instead of the tournament first place pay of $6000, i think they'd be more inclined to participate, especially of there was multiple choice events taking place, in other regions of the country, or world for that matter.

 

[realkingcobra]

A 100 cosponsored events at $48,000 each within a year only totals $4.8M in advertising money.

Geico insurance spends $4.5M on a 30 second commercial.

How much does GEICO spend on advertising 2020?

Based on the methodology used in 2019 — which doubles the reported statutory expense to reflect a 50% quota share reinsurance agreement established in 2014 between GEICO and National Indemnity Co., another Berkshire subsidiary — GEICO spent an estimated $2.26 billion on advertising in 2020, making it a top spender.Jun 24, 2021

According to a Palm Beach Post report, those 30 seconds cost GEICO a whopping $4.5 million – or $150,000 per second. In general, insurance companies spend so much, they outstrip every other American industry by nearly 8%.Jun 23, 2015

 

[realkingcobra]

See, here's the thing, more events that have upper level payouts means more money in tournaments. Multiple events with the same too payouts means the upper level players can spread themselves out more and stop fighting over the same dollars, which in turn relates to players earning MORE living money by increasing their odds of winning more money!

So, between Pro only events, and Pros playing all other, sponsorship added events, the true Pros would actually be able to start earning a living, a real living.

I'd like to see the 200th ranked player earning a $50K + a year income.

 

[Poolplaya9]

If only 1M people from the world of viewers elects to watch this event, Burger King makes $7M in world wide sales against $1.2M in advertising dollars spent!
Thats a pretty cheap advertising platform compared to what the Parent company of Burger King spends on advertising, none of which drives the customers to buy their products!

Just more friendly food for thought... I think your viewer expectations are another flaw in the business plan you need to seriously reconsider. I can see this business model, if it ever gets off the ground for any extended period of time, getting more paid viewers than has happened in the past (which is typically in the hundreds or very low thousands). But 1 million? I think 20,000 might be a more realistic number. Yes, I know it is "world wide", but 1 millions is a pipe dream, at least for years until and if it takes off with a more mainstream audience which seems pretty unlikely. Some tens of thousands is probably the more realistic prediction on the optimistic end. One might argue that it never hurts to shoot for the stars, but if your business model is built on the need to hit those stars, and those stars just aren't realistic, it can only result in a failed business.

Also, don't forget that at the end of the day, all (aside from a few other intangibles to a lesser extent) advertisers/sponsors care about is how much money their advertising/sponsorship dollars makes them on net--not their gross sales which you keep using. Most of the ones you mentioned probably have 2-5% gross margins I would guess, I think they are fairly thin margins in that industry but someone correct me with the accurate figures if you have them. So that 7 million in sales you keep touting may only make them $245,000 (I split the difference and used 3.5% margins here). So spending 7 million to make $245,000 wouldn't make any business sense at all, and if that is the results they end up getting you can be sure they won't be repeating that mistake a second time. Of course that $245,000 doesn't take into account future profits from brand new customers they manage to acquire who end up becoming repeat customers, but just how many people have never tried burger king before, or dominoes pizza, or any of the others? I don't expect they are going to pick up too many brand new customers so their shorter term more immediate profits is going to be the bulk of what they get out of their advertising and they aren't going to be (and certainly won't keep) spending 7 million to make a quarter million, or even 2 million.

 

[realkingcobra]

Just more friendly food for thought... I think your viewer expectations are another flaw in the business plan you need to seriously reconsider. I can see this business model, if it ever gets off the ground for any extended period of time, getting more paid viewers than has happened in the past (which is typically in the hundreds or very low thousands). But 1 million? I think 20,000 might be a more realistic number. Yes, I know it is "world wide", but 1 millions is a pipe dream, at least for years until and if it takes off with a more mainstream audience which seems pretty unlikely. Some tens of thousands is probably the more realistic prediction on the optimistic end. One might argue that it never hurts to shoot for the stars, but if your business model is built on the need to hit those stars, and those stars just aren't realistic, it can only result in a failed business.

Also, don't forget that at the end of the day, all (aside from a few other intangibles to a lesser extent) advertisers/sponsors care about is how much money their advertising/sponsorship dollars makes them on net--not their gross sales which you keep using. Most of the ones you mentioned probably have 2-5% gross margins I would guess, I think they are fairly thin margins in that industry but someone correct me with the accurate figures if you have them. So that 7 million in sales you keep touting may only make them $245,000 (I split the difference and used 3.5% margins here). So spending 7 million to make $245,000 wouldn't make any business sense at all, and if that is the results they end up getting you can be sure they won't be repeating that mistake a second time. Of course that $245,000 doesn't take into account future profits from brand new customers they manage to acquire who end up becoming repeat customers, but just how many people have never tried burger king before, or dominoes pizza, or any of the others? I don't expect they are going to pick up too many brand new customers so their shorter term more immediate profits is going to be the bulk of what they get out of their advertising and they aren't going to be (and certainly won't keep) spending 7 million to make a quarter million, or even 2 million.

They currently spend $100's of millions, and don't generate any sort of driven return, those $100's of millions spent are on FOOD FOR THOUGHT. Its called subliminal thought processing.

Fast Food Restaurant Profit Margins

This number depends on factors like if the location is chain-owned, franchised, or independent, but the average profit margin for a fast food restaurant (QSR) is around 6-9%

Spending $1.2M in advertising is already going to generate a 6-9% margin of profit in sales as it is, add to that the direct sales related to people guaranteed to spend $7 just to avoid the $20PPV! That comes in on top of their margin of profit advertising dollars spent return on sales.

 

[realkingcobra]

Burger King

Luckily, most of these restaurants generate enough revenue to pay for this initial investment. The average Burger King generates around $1.4 million in revenue, with franchise profit coming in around $85,000 per year

Globally famous quick service restaurant chain Burger King operated and franchised a total of 18,625 restaurants worldwide in 2020. The vast majority of these were franchised- 18,573, to be precise. Only 52 units remain company-operated as more and more were replaced with franchised stores over the past ten years.Apr 22, 2021

In over 100 countries.

 

[realkingcobra]

Almost all fast food restaurants budget 4% of their gross net income to support global advertising.

 

[realkingcobra]

If my advertising platform stays within their advertising budget, in which it does, they're not spending any more in advertising dollars to promote pool than they are in spending to support their food sales.

 

[Icon of Sin]

Worldwide Sports and Games Live streaming of the BURGER KING WORLD CUP! 16 of the highest rated Fargo based players on the planet will be playing in a round robin 9B event on such and such days in the month of what ever.

The players will be playing for their share of $1.2M in prize money.

I'll only watch this if the winner is called the "Burger King"...

Same goes for a McDonald's Sponsorship... the "Big Mac"

You can have those ideas for free and you should be able to come up with others for other sponsorships.

 

[realkingcobra]

I'll only watch this if the winner is called the "Burger King"...

Same goes for a McDonald's Sponsorship... the "Big Mac"

You can have those ideas for free and you should be able to come up with others for other sponsorships.

McDonald's could be the big fish too

 

[SlateMan]

Sounds good, but has some logical issues as well. One, you'll never get enough people in the state opens willing to pay $1000 entry to justify it. You did allow for that, stating to adjust the amounts as necessary. You also allowed for additional lesser entry sattelites; however, how do you stop pros from entering to lessen their entry fees to the big tourney????

The reality is that there is no definition of pro. We're only just starting to get there with Fargo, but there's still a long way to go to have a definitively pro vs. amatuer.

Jaden

Good points. I am not sure you need to exclude the pros from the satellite events. You just need a BUNCH of satellite events. Just like the WSOP, nothing ever stops 10 guys from having a $1,000 buy in, one table, winner gets a buy in paid for. In this model, a pool hall could hold a $50 buy-in, 20 person min, one entry to the state. They could do that once a week all year. Or they could do a $50 buy-in, 20 person min and the top x number of winners get to go to the district or the region. Plus, if I have to pay $750 to be absolutely whitewashed by Shane Van Boeing at the U.S. Open, what a bargain it would be to be absolutely whitewashed by him at a satellite for $50! lol...

I do agree with you that the $1,000 would be quite high and maybe to high. I would want that amount high enough that people would be encouraged/incentivized to go the satellite route. The direct buy in would be for people who have money and not time.

I don't think I have the answers, but we need something. Every group in this sport is so divided. No one seems to realize that a rising tide lifts all ships. More players = more sales of cues, equipment, clothes, and even tables.

 

[realkingcobra]

Good points. I am not sure you need to exclude the pros from the satellite events. You just need a BUNCH of satellite events. Just like the WSOP, nothing ever stops 10 guys from having a $1,000 buy in, one table, winner gets a buy in paid for. In this model, a pool hall could hold a $50 buy-in, 20 person min, one entry to the state. They could do that once a week all year. Or they could do a $50 buy-in, 20 person min and the top x number of winners get to go to the district or the region. Plus, if I have to pay $750 to be absolutely whitewashed by Shane Van Boeing at the U.S. Open, what a bargain it would be to be absolutely whitewashed by him at a satellite for $50! lol...

I do agree with you that the $1,000 would be quite high and maybe to high. I would want that amount high enough that people would be encouraged/incentivized to go the satellite route. The direct buy in would be for people who have money and not time.

I don't think I have the answers, but we need something. Every group in this sport is so divided. No one seems to realize that a rising tide lifts all ships. More players = more sales of cues, equipment, clothes, and even tables.

I have no idea where this $1,000 a player buy in is coming from, all those events are is a ring game for the top 4 players to walk away with all the money, and most of those players have someone paying their entry fee. I'd never have anything to do with events like that.

 

[garczar]

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