Home / Poker News June 2012 / Rafael Nadal Becomes Team PokerStars Member
Rafael Nadal Becomes Team PokerStars Member
Posted by: Randy Williams - Fri, 2012-06-22 06:59
The biggest
online poker news of the last few days was about Rafael Nadal, the tennis player who just joined Team PokerStars. Besides the fact that this says quite a lot about the intensity of the online poker scene during the WSOP, it is also a clear indication of how PokerStars intend to focus their efforts on the newly regulated Spanish online poker market. The site has recently launched its Pokerstars.es section, which will obviously play host to all their Spanish players. The site has already hogged up tons of traffic. According to online poker traffic tracking specialists, pokerstars.es is currently 8th in the amount of online poker traffic it handles, and it has put all its competitors to shame thus far. The second largest Spanish-focused online poker site is 888poker.es, but PokerStars.es has 3 times as many players right now.
The announcement regarding the Rafael Nadal deal was made on Wednesday. The Spaniard has thus joined a team which has Ana Marquez, Poli Rincon and Juan Manuel Pastor as members.
Aged 26, Nadal used to be a #1 tennis player, currently sitting in second position on the ATP list behind Novak Djokovic. Nadal said that his competitive nature made PokerStars a perfect match for him, and as soon as he discovered the game, he chose PokerStars which he considered the best in the business.
Nadal’s latest win came at the French Open in Paris, where he won another major title (his 11th) and which took his career profits over the $50 million mark.
Obviously, he’s earned tons more from endorsement deals with companies like Armani and Nike.
Nadal’s presence among the ranks of Team PokerStars signals a clear intention on the part of PokerStars to scoop up as big a share of the Spanish online poker market as possible from the get-go.
Nadal wouldn’t be the first major tennis celebrity to be signed by PokerStars. In 2007, Boris Becker joined the SportStars roster.
