Poker Players File Antitrust Lawsuit
You know poker has arrived as a sport when it too has an antitrust lawsuit. Seven poker professionals filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (i.e., Los Angeles) against the World Poker Tour (WPTE). The AP reports that lawsuit is:
over the use of their likeness and their access to play in televised tournaments. … The players, which include famous pros Howard “The Professor” Lederer, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and World Series champs Joseph Hachem and Greg Raymer, argued that WPTE made them waive lucrative rights to use their images and names to promote products and video games before they could enter WPT poker tournaments. Lederer told The Associated Press that video clips of him playing in a WPT tournament were used in a WPT video game that competed directly with one he and his sister Annie Duke appear in, “World Championship Poker.” “All I’m asking is that they not compete against me, with me, without even offering to pay me or asking my permission,” Lederer said. “People are being paid seven-figure endorsement contracts. These are rights that should not be demanded of us for nothing.”
The Plaintiffs are represented by Dewey Ballantine’s Jeffery Kessler. The press release states:
The Complaint alleges that WPTE and the casinos have unlawfully conspired to eliminate competition for the services and intellectual property rights of top, high stakes professional poker players. In particular, the Complaint alleges that the casinos have agreed with WPTE that they will not host any non-WPT televised poker tournaments. The Complaint also alleges that WPTE and the casinos have conspired to fix the price and other terms and conditions under which Plaintiffs and other professional poker players are forced to give up their valuable services and intellectual property rights in order to participate in WPT tournaments.
The AP also reports that “WPT Enterprises’ lawyer Adam Pliska said he couldn’t comment before seeing the suit. But he added that most players were content to sign the agreements allowing use of their likeness for the chance to play.” After he sees the complaint, I hope WPTE’s lawyer comes up with a better defense than “most players don’t object to our conduct.”
[Update: Riding the F Train has some thoughts about the lawsuit too. I agree that defining the market will be crucial. I have not had a chance to see the complaint so I am flying a bit blind, but it sounds like the restraint here is not upon the players, but upon the casinos - the WPTE is restraining the casinos it holds its tournaments in from holding other televised poker tournaments.]
[Additional Update (7/25): you can read the complaint here (.pdf).]
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July 21st, 2006 at 12:04 pm
There are two separate claims (1) that the casinos are tied in to the WPT in an anticompetitive manner and (2) that the releases that the players sign give the WPT an unlimited license to use the names and likenesses of “elite poker players” for non-tournament WPT branded products.
It is the second claim that gives rise to the possible (unalleged, but subtextual) tying claims. Instead of alleging tying, the players have alleged a variety of tortious interference claims based on their exclusive endorsements with other poker businesses.
July 21st, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Interesting. Do you have a copy of the complaint? If so, we’d love to see it (and post it).
August 26th, 2006 at 8:37 am
[…] On Thursday, the World Poker Tour filed its answer to the antitrust lawsuit filed by seven poker professionals. We mentioned the lawsuit and linked to the complaint last month. You can see the answer on the WPT site. The first four pages are a “media-ready” response to the complaint and provide a good overview of the WPT’s defense. Answers are generally very dry and/or hard-to-follow but the first four pages of this answer are worth reading. […]