SPTs-2019 and beyond?

Essexphil

I love the SPTs as they stand. The structure is as good as its rivals. The people are way friendlier. I would love to see them thrive going forward.

I want this thread to make suggestions as to how to make it even better.

The current venues work well. Not been to Glasgow, but Brighton and Manchester are great. Only been to Nottingham (at current venue) once-felt it was not as good. Not been to a Vegas SPT, but those that have all said it was good.

So-what new venues could there be? I have 2 suggested possible extras.

1. SPT venues are similar to Unibet's. It is worth noting that, while they are still being cagy about venues this year, the next stop is Aspers Milton Keynes. I assumed that 888 had Aspers tied up-but closer inspection shows that all efforts seem to centre on Stratford-the rest of the country does not seem to be tied to 888.

2. London venue. SPT needs one. 2 options-Grosvenor Vic (Unibet etc), or Hippodrome (Stars owned)

I would hope that Stars would use the SPT brand for mid-sized MTTs in the UK (under £1,000 entry). I'm sure I am not the only person who is far likelier to attend an SPT than a Stars branded live tournament.

madprof

A southwest venue would also be great...Bristol for the softie northeners to get to easier or Plymouth if you really want to be radical...agree with Phil..a London venue is a must!

pompeynic

I love the SPT’s, I , like Phil hav played three of the four venues and am pretty much in agreement wit him that Nottingham is my least favourite so far.
I would travel to most places for these tournaments as I really enjoy them, the only knock on a London venue I can think of is hotel prices, probably making a long weekend quite expensive.
Not sure what else could be changed or added to make them better, will give it some thought going forward.

madprof

pompeynic said:

I love the SPT’s, I , like Phil hav played three of the four venues and am pretty much in agreement wit him that Nottingham is my least favourite so far.
I would travel to most places for these tournaments as I really enjoy them, the only knock on a London venue I can think of is hotel prices, probably making a long weekend quite expensive.
Not sure what else could be changed or added to make them better, will give it some thought going forward.

CLOCK! You could always bring your caravan to London, Nic...

madprof

madprof said:

pompeynic said:

I love the SPT’s, I , like Phil hav played three of the four venues and am pretty much in agreement wit him that Nottingham is my least favourite so far.
I would travel to most places for these tournaments as I really enjoy them, the only knock on a London venue I can think of is hotel prices, probably making a long weekend quite expensive.
Not sure what else could be changed or added to make them better, will give it some thought going forward.

CLOCK! You could always bring your caravan to London, Nic...

Sorry forgot to add, its only Notts I've not been to...doesn't sound as good as tother 3!

ctbn

SPT's are on the way out i think, there's not the same input from SKY poker as there use to be now only TK and a couple of others.
when they were running before there was a great input from SKY most of the tv presenters were there mixing with all, playing side games etc.
those were the SPT's
the loss of chanel 864 hit bad

Tikay10

@ctbn

"....only TK....."

Like a dagger to my heart.

You really do know how to hurt a man.

EvilPingu

ctbn said:

SPT's are on the way out i think, there's not the same input from SKY poker as there use to be now only TK and a couple of others.
when they were running before there was a great input from SKY most of the tv presenters were there mixing with all, playing side games etc.
those were the SPT's
the loss of chanel 864 hit bad

I agree the loss of 865/846/861 has taken away from the events ever so slightly. Having Sky staff is fine too of course, but yeah having Orford et al. playing definitely added something unique that's difficult to recreate now without Sky folk being as recognisable from telly (Neil Channing aside). That said, it's not something that's going to make or break SPT.

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"Those were the SPTs" - The SPT itself has definitely undergone somewhat of an image change from being a weekend p*ss-up among community regs historically with a bit of poker on the side, to being a more serious event since reintroduction where poker is definitely the number one thing. It's not by design, but rather a consequence of making running SPT viable in 2019. Not saying it's either a good or bad thing, btw.

Naturally, the two day SPTs with bigger buy-ins tend to attract a somewhat different audience, since an SPT is now more like £350-400 with hotel, travel and beers, plus time off work, which thins out the (already declining) number of community/team regs.

I'd be amazed if SPTs in the past (£110s at least) were anything other than a loss leader for Sky, due to costs of TV, staff at events, free entries, travel costs, presumably some cost to use a venue too? Just look at how much rake GUKPT Goliath charges - I think they were at £100+25 this year, although admittedly it's hard to know how much of that is a cash grab and how much of it is out of necessity.

We're not living in the immediate aftermath of the poker boom where Sky is a new site, everyone in poker knows Sky Poker exists by now, and there's no TV channel where SPT content can hook people in any more. And GL making money off 1 day £110 live turbos every few months for a poker tour. SPT had no choice but to evolve from its super-affordable, community-based roots or die.

An SPT from 'back in the day' would soon fall off the schedule when you can just host a 2-day, £220-550 BI tourney with £50-100k guaranteed in its place.

If Sky could get a big enough venue, could a £110 Sunday side event Turbo work alongside day 2 of the main SPT? Who knows - That might be something to try if the opportunity presents itself.

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I'm not sure I agree on the input thing - While it has changed, it certainly seemed okay at Manchester 2017 (which is the last SPT I attended) given the lack of TV. Obvs you're not going to have the same camaraderie as with the TV presenters and months/years of viewer interaction, but it wasn't like Sky didn't try.

I do think Sky missed a trick by not taking some of their TV budget and investing it into YouTube/Twitch content once the decision was made to end the TV channel - It was around the time that JCarver and Jaime Staples were attracting huge audiences, too. Having an established pro like Neil Channing streaming Poker could only have been a good thing for the site, with his ability to talk to anyone about anything and hold viewers' interest for hours. But that's a whole different thread

MISTY4ME

If Sky could get a big enough venue, could a £110 Sunday side event Turbo work alongside day 2 of the main SPT? Who knows - That might be something to try if the opportunity presents itself.

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I'm not sure I agree on the input thing - While it has changed, it certainly seemed okay at Manchester 2017 (which is the last SPT I attended) given the lack of TV. Obvs you're not going to have the same camaraderie as with the TV presenters and months/years of viewer interaction, but it wasn't like Sky didn't try.

I do think Sky missed a trick by not taking some of their TV budget and investing it into YouTube/Twitch content once the decision was made to end the TV channel - It was around the time that JCarver and Jaime Staples were attracting huge audiences, too. Having an established pro like Neil Channing streaming Poker could only have been a good thing for the site, with his ability to talk to anyone about anything and hold viewers' interest for hours. But that's a whole different thread

Nice post Pingu.

I did particularly like this idea, especially when you F.T.Q. for Final Day and you have to go shopping with the Mrs! I know they used to hold side events in the past at UKPC's at DTD, as I remember my first sighting of TiKay, and Neil and co. (I recognised them from SKYPoker TV) PLOpping at my first ever live event, but I'm sure it's quite difficult to organise logistically, especially with the size of some of the venues.

EvilPingu

MISTY4ME said:

Nice post Pingu.

I did particularly like this idea, especially when you F.T.Q. for Final Day and you have to go shopping with the Mrs! I know they used to hold side events in the past at UKPC's at DTD, as I remember my first sighting of TiKay, and Neil and co. (I recognised them from SKYPoker TV) PLOpping at my first ever live event, but I'm sure it's quite difficult to organise logistically, especially with the size of some of the venues.

Yup - It's unfortunate that so many potential venues that would be capable of hosting an SPT with a side event are also in partnerships with other sites nowadays, or in the case of Genting & Grosvenor they have their own tours, so we're left with smaller venues that at times struggle with a single SPT main event, and people having to wait on alternate lists for a while as a result.

Maybe the Hippodrome becomes an option if Sky Poker and SPT survive the Stars takeover?