Partypoker signs deal with Kevin Hart and organises NHS charity game
Poker brand to leverage US comedian and actor’s global fanbase to attract recreational players to the site
Partypoker has unveiled a new partnership with stand-up comedian, actor and recreational poker player Kevin Hart.
The 40-year-old American, who has more than 88 million followers on Instagram and 36 million Twitter followers, has also fronted a series of marketing videos for online and social channels promoting partypoker.
Hart’s deal with GVC-owned partypoker comes almost two years after he inked a partnership with PokerStars.
While partypoker has signed a number of high-stakes professional players to its ranks, Hart’s arrival is about pushing the brand beyond the core poker audience.
Speaking to EGR, partypoker MD Tom Waters said: “Over the last 10 years, partypoker has done very little brand marketing, with every effort to push our brand in the core poker community, but we need to widen our reach and we think Kevin is the perfect guy to help us with that.
“I think he can really bring us new traffic that we haven’t been able to reach before, which I think will be good for the site. It will bring in a whole new group of players with a recreational focus.”
Besides the deal with Hart, partypoker is organising two online charity tournaments this week and next week.
The first, to be held this Thursday at 8.30pm, is a £50 buy-in tournament for UK players where a minimum of 50% of the prize pool will be donated to NHS Charities Together, the umbrella organisation representing over 140 NHS charities.
Partypoker will match the amount collected from the rake-free tournament, doubling the charitable donation.
Waters said: “It is something we wanted to offer to the players to help out all those people doing such a great job in difficult times.
“And the response has been quite remarkable. We have already had players ask for donations to be made to the NHS from their poker accounts and there is a lot of positive feedback, so it should raise a good sum.”
Next week, the operator will organise a similar charity tournament for its global player base on its main site, where the winner gets to choose the charity of his or her choice.