In order to secure a regular presence on French-language television in Canada, online poker giant Pokerstars has inked a deal with sports television broadcaster RDS.
The TV company is popular with French Canadian sports fans, delivering quality content across a variety of platforms, including RDS, RDS2, RDS Info channels, RDS.ca, RDS Mobile, the RDS GO app, and its Everywhere service.
Pokerstars has chosen to be associated with a particular program, the top sports talk show L’Antichambre, which in terms of the agreement will broadcast a Pokerstars.net poker table twice a week.
In clinching the deal, Pokerstars is cannily leveraging the known affinity between sports betters and poker players, noting that in Canada ice hockey is a sport followed with passion, and an activity often discussed by poker players both away from and at the table.
The poker table hockey discussions featured on L’Antichambre will interest sports fans as well as poker players, creating both exposure and synergy for the online poker giant.
Adding to the ambience, cards used at the table will be hockey-oriented in design, and the participants in the discussion will try to influence the house on their views and opinions on hockey stars and game reviews.
The format of L’Antichambre allows for ample interactivity with the viewers, who can vote on the discussions and panelists using RDS’ social TV platform. And of course Pokerstars will use the program to promote its brand and competitions.
“I imagine most of our viewers have sat around a poker table and analysed hockey with their buddies. We’re just recreating those conversations in our studio,” RDS director Alexandre Lauzon explained this week.