PKR Changes Its Business Strategy; Drops Team Pro Concept
"We are entering a period of seismic change for PKR which is bold, exciting, and game-changing, and the results of which you will see in the New Year," wrote Dan "PKR_Danski" Grant, PKR's Head of Content and PR on the PKR forums on Oct. 14.
What those changes are remain under lock and key, but Grant has revealed that PKR has scrapped the Team PKR Pro concept with immediate effect, claiming the idea "does not feature in the new business strategy."
This means that 2014 WPT500 UK champion Eleanor Gudger, and recent addition to the Team Pro roster Dan O’Callaghan are no longer sponsored pros of the site and sporting PKR patches at the live events they attend.
Grant admitted that PKR had failed to fully support its Team Pros in recent years, writing: "To the inevitable (and accurate) responses to this news, I say that yes, in recent years Team Pros weren't supported or utilized enough and that's our bad. Running a team properly, ensuring they get the advice and support they need and that we get every ounce of benefit from them takes an investment of time and money that we have not always been able to give, so we would like to apologize for that."
Gudger, who competed in the partypoker UK Team Challenge at Dusk Till Dawn last weekend sans a PKR patch, commented on Grant's post.
"I've really enjoyed my time as part of PKR Team Pro," she wrote. "It is something I never imagined would be possible when I first joined PKR back in 2007; not even realizing you couldn't later change your screen name at will (yes that clueless about online poker!!). I won't be going far as I'll always be a member of the great PKR family — at the tables, at the meet-ups, and on the forum."
PKR has had a number of high-profile pros on its roster since launch. The likes of James "James666" Sudworth and Vladimir "Beyne" Geshkenbein were among the early Team Pros, as was Sofia Lovgren, who departed to take up a similar role at 888poker.
Then there was Jake Cody, whose first sponsorship deal came from PKR before he headed to PokerStars.
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