We all know that when it comes to fields for open events on the professional circuit, women tend to make up a very small percentage of the players.  At first glance, sponsorships from online sites probably appear to many to reflect that imbalance somewhat.  Take a gander at ads featuring “Team Full Tilt,” and one instantly notices about a dozen men walking down Fremont Street flanking just one woman (Jennifer Harman).

Women do receive sponsorships from online sites, though.  And, in fact, if we were to compare the percentages, I’d venture to guess that women are probably better represented among sponsored players than they are among the tourney fields on the circuit.  Even so, there are certainly many more men than women out there representing sites as “team pros.”

The sponsorship game has changed considerably since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Enforcement Act of 2006.  With many sites pulling out of the United States -- coupled with more recent economic woes -- the overall number of opportunities for sponsorship over the last few years has been markedly reduced.  The fact is, all pros, men and women, are finding it exceedingly difficult to land a coveted spot as a sponsored player, although it is safe to say that when it comes to the women players, there are definitely even fewer opportunities than there are for men.

The criteria sites use to select their sponsored pros is in some respects mysterious, although all obviously seek those who satisfy a certain image the site wants to project.  And when it comes to female players, the matter of image -- much as is the case everywhere else in our culture -- has a different significance than it does for the men.

The end of January saw a couple of events that brought special attention to the issue of women and sponsorships in poker.  One was an announcement at the end of January by Bodog, the site whose ad campaigns more often than not seem to be fairly unambiguously directed toward men (“Why so hard? That’s what she said.  Play poker the easy way at Bodog.”)

Bodog announced they were “on the lookout for female players to sponsor and send off to the biggest poker tournaments in the world.”  The call asked those who were interested to email in a photo and brief bio, making sure to type “Female Pro Submission” in the subject line.  Given some of the strategies Bodog has employed over the years in its advertising campaigns, some might be tempted to hear a presumably unintended pun in there.

Perhaps some male players desiring sponsorships might look with disdain on Bodog’s call, unhappy at being excluded.  Indeed, the mere fact that a site can make such an announcement shows that a person’s sex is of consequence in the sponsorship/advertising game.  And, when it comes to female players, looks appear to count, too, as the request for a photo implies.

Another conversation-starter for the topic came thanks to that impromptu video of a conversation between Kathy Liebert and Daniel Negreanu posted over at the World Poker Tour site as part of its updates at their January Biloxi event.  In the video, Negreanu said of Liebert that “without question... [over] the last 10-15 years... there’s not another woman that’s even on the same radar in terms of tournament success.”  That statement led to a discussion of the fact that Liebert tended not to receive the acclaim she was due for her achievements, as well as some speculation about the reasons why that may be the case.

The discussion didn’t really come to a conclusion, although Liebert did acknowledge that the fact that she was neither “PC” nor “a fashion plate” probably didn’t help her cause.  “I don’t care about fashion,” Liebert explained.  “I don’t go around trying to impress people.”  That said, she noted that “I certainly haven’t gotten the credit that you would think that I would have had with the success that I’ve had.”  Indeed, the fact that despite her numerous accomplishments -- especially in no-limit hold’em tournaments -- Liebert is not sponsored as a “team pro” is certainly one example of her having perhaps failed to receive appropriate credit for her abilities as a player.

The Liebert-Negreanu conversation was discussed on a subsequent episode of The Poker Beat podcast, where the panel further pursued some of the ideas suggested in the video.  In trying to explain why Liebert hadn’t received a sponsorship, the discussants mainly focused on Liebert’s refusal to be “PC” and/or “play the game” (i.e., consciously work to market herself).  And while the host, Scott Huff, did try to encourage the others to speak also to the point about Liebert’s not being “a fashion plate,” the panel -- all men, incidentally -- didn’t really seem interested in pursuing that aspect of the issue.

But it seems pretty clear to me that even if Liebert were willing to “play the game” of self-promotion according to the terms suggested both by Negreanu and the Poker Beat hosts, she’d encounter difficulty.  The criteria for sponsorships is obviously not merely confined to achievement at the tables.  Nor is it simply tied to one’s efforts (or one’s agent’s efforts) to network and market oneself.  Successfully landing a sponsorship is also clearly tied to image -- and when it comes to women, it should come as no surprise that cultural prejudices regarding image are going to be reflected in how poker sponsorships are given out.

To me, the Bodog call for would-be female pros helps make this point most apparent.  Would a site advertise for men only?  Probably not.  If a site did, would it ask for photos as part of the vetting process?  Who knows?  But if somehow the site did, you can bet a much wider range of “image” would be accepted among the male applicants than will probably be the case for the current search.

Not saying that’s right, of course.  But that’s our culture at present.