Anyone ever wonder what the team "pros" and "online" earn

Probarly a really vague answer for these and most likely no one would actually know unless they have some contacts but I'm sure most will have a better idea than me and I've always wondered what sort of expenses and salary they earn.

These are my thoughts on some 2 top pros and 2 online pros and their earnings.

Daniel Negrenu:

I'm guessing he is the most paid pokerstar player as he is one of the most recognisable poker players in the world and most definetly most famous.

If I had to guess, I'd say his contract is a multi million dollar one. Not sure over how many years and so on but would you say just in salary alone he earns 100K + a year? I also wonder what expenses he gets paid for including entry fees and maybe a bankroll capital although I'm unsure if he would of been given a bankroll!

Vicktor Blom:

This might sound contridcting but actually it woulden't surprise if everything taken into account he earns the same as Daniel, if not more espically because he is a lot more active than Daniel on the online felt. Most definetly the most famous onine player (excluding Tom Dwan) to make such a inpact. Instantly made a team pro as opposed to team online. I'm guessing in terms of promoting and coverage, his signing would of been quite lucrative. As opposed to Daniel, I'm quite confident he was giving a starting bankroll as part of his contract terms so he could play the highest stakes out there.

The fact that he very recently moved to London as residence speaks volume on how much his contract must of been worth. It woulden't surprise me if he isn't falling short of Daniel in terms of a Salary. The bankroll, must of been a lot though, when looking at losses, he's already been down nearly 600k and I don't belive any of that money was actually "his"

The fact they also have superstar showdown as an avent which happens once/twice a month it woulden't surprise me if he's staked in every game he plays and any profits are his. If he loses then he just loses, which doesn't effect anything. There's so much you could add to Viktors possibly earnings but to much to list. I'm guessing with everything taken into a account he also is on at least a million dollar contract with pokerstars.

Chris Moneymaker:

After the big boom in the money maker effect I'm also guessing at the TIME he had the same sort of contract as Viktor has at the minute although nowadays I don't think it's anywhere near as much as these two. I'm guessing would of been given a good starting bankroll, free entry into major tournaments and of course a salary but I also belive as the years have gone by his contract has been cut somewhat.


Online players: (2 examples)

At a guess I think the online pros don't have anywhere near as much of a lucrative deal but still one I woulden't turn my nose up to. Any thoughts would be good.

Randy Lew:

A salary based contract with x amount of hours put in each month to full fill it. No idea on how much they would be paid but I'm guessing it would be above a good normal day wage. Maybe 60+ plus a year? Obviously no bankroll edition and so on..Maybe a chance of 100% rake back?

Space Gravy:

Same sort of deal as Randy?


It's actually harder putting an "online pro" on a gestimate on how much they earn but I'm sure it can't all be that bad.


any thoughts would be great!

I'm just as informed as you are but I think you're underestimating a little. I would say somebody like negreanu is on at least 1m a year

You know the reason he wanted to move was to try to avoid Swedish taxes, right?

Right Indeed. That's my point, I can't imagine him up and leaving his family home on his own back to another country at 19 yearsold. He moved as he was signed by pokerstars, thus making me think the deal was so good that they also offered him new residence in a country which doesn't tax your gambling which leads me to believe his contract some what lucrative. That is just one of the few things he got when contracted with pokerstars(I imagine), hence the reasoning for all his identity being kept a secret for so long and him willing to disclose it with the contract being he moved to a tax free gambling country. Of course I might be way of but thats why I asked peoples opinions on these players earnings and their thoughts.

As I understand it, these players are compensated by the sites with money to pay for their buy ins.They are "sponsored" if you will. They may then keep all their winnings which would be substantial. I'm sure there are many requirements of the pros, such as personal appearances, use of their names and likenesses in ads.

I am sure the amount of winnings of these pros is well into the tens of millions of $ in the course of a year.

I have a friend who was approached by FT just prior to the WSOP last year. He was offered his buy ins for any Tournaments he wished to enter. He would have been required to wear specific clothing while at the tables and attend events during the WSOP, representing them.

This is a huge money maker for the pokersites as how many more players will join a game with the potential to play against a pro.

I would imagine that many of these professionals do not necessarily receive a base salary, but are compensated by receiving buy-ins to large tournaments to promote Pokerstars, and are given an online bankroll to play on the website. Their contracts are most likely filled with incentives, such as receiving $1M for winning certain tournaments or playing online for a certain number of hours. I could be wrong, but I think in this way Pokerstars would benefit a lot more by their sponsored pros if they were paid this way.

I would go along with what you are saying here and defo think blom is on a bumper deal.

Do Pokerstar pros make more money than Fulltilt pros? Anyone by chance know?

I am completely ignorant to this, but I thought that full tilt pros get a certain % in full tilt stock or something like that. Which is where most of their earning come from. or profit sharing?

How can you ever know? I've never seen any information on this. You don't know whether they are getting buy ins paid for or a salary or profit sharing or a combination. I don't see how you can try and guess what they are making.

im sure its not posted anywhere online how much they are paid..b/c if it was i think ppl would talk about it on forums...and i dont think ive really ever seen it discussed.

id like to know though

Contract disclosure clause would be my quess.

prob a good guess

Lots of meaningless speculation ITT. A few thoughts though:
He was rich before he signed with Stars, I doubt he needed their money to move. If there's any link between the timing of his move and his signing with Stars it's more likely because Stars outed him, not because of what they're paying him.
There's a very good answer to that in this thread: http://www.cardschat.com/showpost1647223-post7.html

Im quite sure that the team FullTilt members make more than the PokerStars pro's.
Im not sure about any amounts but at least part of the team FullTilt are co-owners.

Edit: Oh, the question was already answered, didnt see that.

The Team Online players get a huge bonus to clear, not sure if they get an income on top of it.

of course I wonder. Tho I don't think anyone has ever discussed their deals.
been rumored negreanu is getting as much as 5 mirronz a year.

Well, the only ever way of actually knowing is either a PS employee who deals with this distributing this information or a team pro telling you what kind of deal he/she is on. I haven't seen any information on this either, hence the reason I'm asking and wondering what they get so gave my thoughts on possibilities and asked others for their opinions.
I and most people not sure if you can but, I can try and guess by logically thinking for a minute the possibilities.
buy-ins, being staked in certain fields. salary, wearing PS advertisment clothing and so on.

I'm sure he had some money back before he signed for pokerstars indeed. I could probarly agree that he didn't need money to move to a different country, he was inactive from the online scene as far as we know and was happy being out of the pulic eye and evading tax.

At the time he also didn't need to reveal his identity as it would be costly in terms of tax so that's why I figure he moved at the timing of the signing not being coincendence. It was more likely a case of, "Ok, here is your deal" (Worth a lot) "with this deal we gain publicty and promtions etcetc so we want to reveal your identity." With this, Viktor could of already pointed out why he didn't wish to reveal it in the first place then some more talks with them led to them moving him to a different country without any tax laws regarding gambling!

We're all talking out of our asses, but lets not forget that these sites rake in billions (BILLIONS) annually.

The more people who donk off money, the more money they rake in.

The bigger the buzz around your name, the more people you draw in.

Victor was, and still is, the buzz of the online poker world. Couple with that the extensive mystique surrounding his name, financial security he had before hand and use your imagination.

He created this buzz playing on FT then opts to sign with PokerStars. The BIGGEST, RICHEST, MOST POPULAR online poker site in the WORLD.

$1 million annually would be an insult to his intelligence.

Remember this though - it's only people who follow online poker who actually know who he is. Those people's internet poker habits are fairly well established and they're unlikely to change them in any significant way just because Stars signed him.

They're doing their best to build a buzz around him now but the truth is the casual players that Stars are trying to entice to sign up have probably never heard of him and won't be swayed much by his signing either. After all he's never really been on TV or won any big tournaments or anything. Maybe they figure he will in the future and that he'll be a long-term investment but at the moment I don't actually see them getting that much value out of him.

This thread is pointless.

You are discussing player earnings without any knowledge of what they earn.

Valid point. Personally I think that a company raking in billions annually can afford to fork out over $1 million for a pretty solid long term investment as you speculated. What is it .1% of only a portion of their annual net? They wipe their asses with it, so why not use it as leverage when there is potentially so much to gain from investing it.

To state the obvious, PokerStars is an online site. This guy is important to the current online community as you mentioned. He May not be as significant as Daniel, but again we're talking less than .1% here. Not exactly a strenuous overhead. Wouldn't want players switching over to FullTilt when they go bust on Stars especially when you're anticipating a poker boom of astronomical proportions when the US wises up and legalizes poker in years to come.

Victor making the move to pokerstars speaks volumes for the sites integrity as far as the existing online poker world is concerned and we can't underestimate the value of this. They need all the star power/potential star power they can handle and then some if they are looking to stay front runners in the gambling industry.

Besides, it'll take some serious motivation to get a millionaire to sign a contract when he knows he's talented enough to make the cash without any backing. Now, he's got to lug around a big ball and chain; making appearances, logging a certain amount of hours, being famous and the pressure to win against the pro's (that he once crushed in his boxers) in the spotlight.

I think dude could squeeze 7 figures out of them, easy. One things for sure, if he ever needs any representation all he needs to do is hit up Cardschat lol.

Didn't see this included in the posts, and 'technically' it's not a salary, but remember when Daniel signed with Pokerstars, he had a poker skin called Full Contact Poker. When he got signed, as part of the contract (or so I've read from other sites....and it makes sense) brought all of his players as well. The percentage he must have negotiated from an affiliate standpoint is pretty good money right there!

So Nats, did your buddy sign with Pokerstars after all?

They are living the dream, imagine playing with a bankroll put up by the site, and getting a salary on top of your winnings, i dont think id ever leave my computer, lol.

I was just thinking the same thing. Just getting staked every year almost. :ROOL::

Im pretty sure no site puts up an unlimited BR for any pro player .. otherwise the biggest money spinner would be donking that said BR off to your friends and splitting the profits.

The usual deal is no rake (which is valuable)

The other deal is free entry to live tournaments, where of course you wear whatever logos you are told to.. and thus its a straightforward sponsorship deal but insted of cash you get free entry.