Over the past eight years, there has been a tremendous growth in popularity of poker as a form of “sports entertainment.” While the game itself is not a sport, it’s coverage on television and across the web has created a deep connection between poker and the sports world. However, as of Friday, the relationship between the sports world and poker took a dramatic turn.

For those that aren’t familiar with what happened, I’ll try to summarize quickly. The FBI and Southern District of New York announced that they were arresting the top executives from the big-three online poker sites (PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker/UltimateBet) and they seized the related “.com” domain names. Those arrested are facing charges of bank fraud, money laundering, and violation of UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act).

Ever since the UIGEA was passed in 2006, there has been a question as to the legality of online poker in the U.S.  The language of the bill focused on financial transactions related to online gambling, but the big service providers mentioned above believed that poker is a game of skill, not gambling, and continued to operate very successfully in the U.S. In fact, the poker industry continued to boom over the past 4-5 years, as you can see from the amount of media coverage it received and the sponsorships involved. Both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars sponsored poker television coverage on ESPN (World Series of Poker and the North American Poker Tour), NBC (NBC Heads-Up and Poker After Dark) and Fox (PokerStars The Big Game). ESPN.com also had PokerStars sponsored coverage through a web-video show called the Inside Deal. PokerStars was even an NHL sponsor, with prominent exposure at their annual awards show.

Poker also created lots of new “sports” celebrities, people like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth and many more. Not only were these top  players sponsored by online poker sites, they were popular enough to receive endorsements outside of poker. In looking at the “sport,” there were definitely similarity to NASCAR in terms of individual endorsement potential. You could often see these players wearing logos of their partner companies, and the better they performed at the table, the greater the partner exposure.

In the immediate aftermath of “Black Friday,” the following events have occurred:

• ESPN and ESPN.com have removed all associated with PokerStars, canceled their North American Poker Tour coverage and even stopped showing reruns of older WSOP broadcasts.
• The Big Game on Fox has been canceled, at least temporarily
• Wynn Entertainment and other U.S.-based casinos have ended most of their relationships with online sites
• All three sites have stopped serving U.S. players for real money games
• Top officials that have yet to be arrested could be extradited, depending on their current location (officials for these sites usually live outside the country)
• Funds for U.S. players are temporarily frozen, and there’s a chance this money could be lost altogether.

The big question is, what happens now? The World Series of Poker, which has become a top sports-related brand will probably see a significant drop in participation and television coverage. Top players that rely on online poker for their income may be forced to leave the country, or even worse, could be looking at criminal charges depending on their relationship with the online sites. Poker television as we know it could be over, along with any poker-related sponsorships of U.S. teams or leagues. Meanwhile, the Poker Players Alliance, a lobbying group on behalf of poker players, is trying to rally players to push for legislation to legalize and regulate online poker. Bills on this topic have been discussed in Congress on and off for the past two years, and some people even feel that these recent events could speed up the process of U.S. regulation.

It’s too early to predict what the ultimate results from these charges will be, but there’s little doubt that the landscape of the poker industry has been permanently changed by “Black Friday.” For more coverage of this story, check out Darren Rovell’s coverage or visit www.pokernews.com.

As you have probably already heard, Utah’s Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wants to see the BCS prosecuted for violating antitrust laws.  First off, I want to say that I hate when politicians decide to meddle in sports, because 99% of the time it has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with personal opinions or pandering to constituents.  In this case, since the University of Utah went undefeated and was left out of the BCS Championship game, apparently the logical next thought is that the law is being broken.  If the Utah Attorney General has nothing better to do then worry about who plays for a college football championship, then Utah must not have any real need for an attorney general.

OK, now that I have my small rant out of the way, I will take a minute to briefly consider whether there is some logic to his argument (even if his motives are completely biased).  Antitrust laws are designed to prevent companies from conspiring with one another to limit competition.  In this case, the companies are the colleges and conferences that have college football teams.  The conferences and teams that participate in the BCS all voted on and agreed to the rules that govern who plays in the championship game, including the Mountain West Conference and the University of Utah.  The BCS does nothing to prevent a school from trying to gain admission into a different conference that had a better bowl chance – that decision is up to the schools and conferences themselves.  In essence, I do not see any actions taken by the BCS that conspires to limit competition within their industry.  They merely designed a system, agreed upon by all the related parties, that best attempts to determine a college football champion. 

My apologies to the Utah AG, but I think its time for him to direct his attention elsewhere (or if he really wants to see Utah in the big game, tell them to join the Pac 10).

With 2008 winding to a close, I want to countdown the top sports business stories of the year.

#3 – The Election of Barack Obama

This may not seem like a sports story, but there are many potential effects of his election on the sports world.

- Obama has already come out vocally in favor of a college football playoff.  Now I do not believe that politicians should get overly involved in sports, but if this is important to him personally, he could be the final straw in getting this to happen.

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong (ESPN, 4/29/08)

- Obama’s election has drawn more attention to the city of Chicago, who is bidding on hosting the 2016 Olympics.  People have already speculated that this attention and Obama’s involvement will help bring the Olympics to his home city.

- Many athletes became vocal supporters of Obama during his campaign, and this drew more attention from the sports media.  Obama himself has talked about how much of a sports fan he is,  actively playing both basketball and golf, and being a loyal Bears and White Sox supporter.

- Obama has already talked about raising the capital gains tax after he takes office, which is very significant for any future franchise sales.  In fact, Wayne Huizenga has been very up-front about his interest in selling the Dolphins before January 15 because of this potential change.

I’ve included a clip below of an interview he did with Bryant Gumbel on HBO’s Real Sports.  Barack Obama seems to be the most sports-oriented President that this country has ever had, which to me make his election one of the top five sports business stories of the year.

Hopefully you’ve all noticed that I always have a poll running on the right side of the page.  If you don’t already, please vote!  I try to change the poll every 1-2 weeks and the results can be quite interesting.  So on that note, here are the results of some of my first few polls.  I will make sure to post on the results semi-regularly, so the more people participate, the more valuable the results will be!

This poll ran after a series of events where politicians were getting involved in the outcomes of games (Patriots Spygate, RU-Tennessee clock malfunction, etc).  I agree that they’ve gotten too involved in the recent past, with the exception of the steroids issue, and only there because of the implications for the health of younger aspiring athletes.

I ran this poll after the unfortunate passing of Gene Upshaw.  I was curious to see what the perception is of the various League/Players Union relationships.  I had also recently finished reading the book “Money Players” by Bruce Dowbiggin which talked about the disastrous relationship between the NHL and NHLPA over the years.  As such, I was not surprised to see the NHL receive the fewest votes.  I was also pleased and saddened to see the NFL receive the most votes – I hope the NFL and NFLPA can continue their positive relationship, especially with the upcoming CBA negotiations.

There was a great article in today’s LA Times about how Barack Obama’s election should help Chicago get the 2016 Olympic bid.  Normally I stay away from political topics (everyone has their own opinions), but the article makes some good points.  Obama clearly brings a lot of attention to Chicago, especially the wonderful scene at Grant Park last night.  The IOC can see how this would translate to an Olympic experience in the same locations.  Obama is also quite the sports fan – he could easily assist the city’s Olympic bid efforts, which would come off very impressively to the IOC.

The only thing about the article I don’t really like was the idea that a McCain win would have actually hurt Chicago’s chances.  Yes, McCain did challenge the IOC is 1998, but for good reason – that Olympic Games was overrun with bribery and corruption, and previous Games had a history of “questionable” ethics as well.  Either way, this is clearly not an issue since Obama won, and I do hope that the victory helps Chicago win the bid!

In what seems to be quite the developing trend, a political official is pursuing a resolution regarding the results of a sporting event.  In this case, it is New Jersey State Senator Robert Singer (R-Ocean) who is trying to press the NCAA to investigate the controversial ending of the Rutgers/Tennessee women’s basketball game from February 11th.  In the game, which took place in Tennessee, the game clock froze at 0.2 second for almost a full second and a half, and a foul occurred on a Tennessee player after, in theory, the game should have been over.  You can read more about the incident and the Senator’s position in this ESPN.com article.

It certainly seems that this trend of political officials meddling in all aspects of sports is getting out of control.  It started with Congress’ initial involvement in the MLB steroid issues, getting worse with the specific focus on Roger Clemens.  Arlen Specter took it farther with his desire for more investigation in the Patriots’ videotaping issues, and now we have the Senator from NJ.  I understand the potential trickle-down impact that steroid use among professional athletes can have on younger athlete, but the other two incidents seem to be nothing but a shallow political move with the goal of gaining votes and local support.  With all the substantial issues that politicians do need to deal with, how is investing the result of a professional football or college basketball game an effective allocation of government resources? 

There is one other perspective to take away from this - the NCAA, conferences, and professional leagues need to be (or at least appear to be) more vigilant in their own investigations.  Once they appear to be more thorough in their work, there should be significantly less reason for the politicians to attempt tactics like this, and if they still do, hopefully their constituents would realize that they are nothing more than publicity stunts.