Harrah’s Expansion For World Series Of Poker
Harrah's, the biggest gaming company on planet Earth is set for further dominance as it has opened a new subsidiary to manage the World Series of Poker brand and explore the lucrative gold mine of online and European expansion.
Under the Harrah's Interactive Entertainment (HIE) company name, the new subsidiary will seek out the European market and look for ways that they can move into it. Using interactive gaming technology as its main tool, HIE will determine the best way it can competitively act in Europe.
"As the world's largest gaming company, Harrah's is taking a proactive approach toward international and interactive expansion. It is important we position ourselves to explore new markets as well as new technologies with our best in class brands " said Harrah's Entertainment Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman.
Mitch Garber, a longtime gaming lawyer and public company senior executive, joins HIE as CEO. Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP, remains in that role and will become President of HIE.
Aside from investigating possible new streams of revenue, the new Harrah's subsidiary will manage one that is already very much a global brand and one that has seen continued and excessive growth: The World Series of Poker. A brand unto itself.
In the past five years the WSOP has taken on phenomenal proportions,easily becoming the most lucrative sporting event in the world. And by
some. The figures would make most retail and service sector companies
swoon.
The ‘Moneymaker’ effect is well documented but how influential he was is hard to realistically calculate. Would the televised game have caused the same growth without him? Whether or not, the number of entrants has gone from 13,036 to 58,720 during the period and participants from 124 nations competed in last year's tournament. It is truly, a World series.
Harrah’s has decided that the huge goliath of the WSOP needs its own governing body to cope with the size of the vehicle. Hence the new HIE which already has the newly created European WSOP which started in 2007. There are heady times ahead.
