History

Blue Square has been committed to player sponsorship for almost two years. The company’s first venture into player sponsorship came in October 2005, with the Unusual Suspects, a competitive sponsorship challenge which saw 9 pro players and one online qualifier battle it out in a knockout format that started in a pub in London and ended up at the EPT Grand Final. Jen Mason defeated fellow pros including Mickey Wernick, Joe Grech, James Dempsey, JP Kelly, Simon Nowab and John Falconer to take the title.

In January 2006 Blue Square unveiled Mickey Wernick as their first fully sponsored pro player. Mickey had won the 2005 European rankings. When he approached the company about being sponsored in early 2005, we set him a challenge – win the European Rankings and get a sponsorship deal from Blue Square. Spurred on by the disappointment of being knocked out in round one of the Unusual Suspects competition, Mickey put together an impressive set of results in the latter part of the year and fought off a challenge from Frenchman Pascal Perrault to take the top spot. Blue Square honoured their word and gave him the deal.

Throughout 2006 Blue Square ran a series of monthly sponsorship freerolls for VIP players. Each month the winner of this freeroll joined Mickey Wernick as a sponsored player for one event. If they made the final table in that event, their sponsorship was extended. Several players joined Mickey during the course of the year, including Bernie Stoddart, Paul Moss, Dan Bland, Patrick Taylor, Aaron Rout, Stephen Pearce, and Stephen Slavin. Bernie Stoddart finished 2nd in his sponsored event in Paris and won a further two months of being sponsored. Paul Moss won the freeroll twice. Stephen Slavin also made the final of his chosen event in Brighton and won a further month’s sponsorship.

In July 2006 20-year old JP Kelly joined Mickey Wernick as a fully sponsored player. He would join Mickey representing Blue Square at EPT tournaments and other prestigious events in the latter half of the year. During this time Kevin ‘Lovejoy’ O’Leary also received a sponsorship deal from Blue Square. James ‘mceptitome’ Atkin has also represented Blue Square at a number of events, including the 2006 and 2007 World Heads Up Championships in Barcelona.

In January 2007 Blue Square extended Mickey Wernick and JP Kelly’s sponsorship deals for a further year. In May 2007 WSOP bracelet winner Praz Bansi and former city financier Karl Mahrenholz joined the Blue Square stable of sponsored players.

Sponsorship Benefits

Our sponsored players benefit from having their travel, hotel and tournament buy-in arrangements taken care of in advance. The program also rewards the best performing players by increasing the budget they have allocated to them if they do well. Blue Square retains a percentage of any winnings achieved by the players and some of this is used to increase their sponsorship budgets.

Each player is featured on their own page on the Blue Square website, where they contribute reports on the events they play in and other articles relating to poker. Need some private tuition? Just ask our pros for their advice.

In September 2007 the Sponsorship Program will be getting even bigger. We will shortly be announcing full details of the extended program, so check back here soon to find out how you can join the Blue Square team and become a sponsored player.


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