A Winning Hand.

The Irish Poker Open is Europe's longest running poker tournament. In recent years there had been a drastic decrease in attendance and the future of the event looked uncertain within a crowded marketplace.

In 2016, two event organizers stepped in to take the reigns of the Event and hired Short Digital to take control of their entire marketing budget with the objective of both attracting more players and improving coverage during the event.

We implemented a cross channel Social Media strategy to reach Poker Players all over the planet and build them in to loyal followers while seeking out key poker websites and negotiated the price and placement of online ads as well as implementing a highly effective email marketing campaign. The results speak volumes as the event grew year on year, having starting as €500,000 GTD prizepool in 2016 and quickly growing to a €1,000,000 GTD event shortly after.

When COVID-19 emerged earlier this year, the 2020 addition of the Irish Poker Open looked doomed. After much thought and effort, the organisers and our team pivoted quickly to bring the event online with partypoker.com

We used effective organic and paid social media advertising to build towards this radical and innovative solution. During the event, we chose Live Facebook and Twitch streaming coverage combined with Twitter updates and daily email campaigns to bring the event to life for those watching online.

Yet again, we broke the record for the number of entrants to the festival with a €2,945,000 prizepool and helped to set a trend in the poker industry for 2020 with other Live events around the world following suit!