My name is Martin Green, following negative online comments by some players regarding VEGAS100 rescheduled date, I feel compelled as Managing Director to go into some detail about how we have come to calculate the prize structure for VEGAS100 2019/20 and 2020/21.

The 2019/20 season was completed in full in which we gave away 110 Vegas player seats and set aside £25,000 in cash and sponsorship to be won in Las Vegas. This trip has now been rescheduled for a second time, moving from May 2020 to February 2021 and now May 2021. The prize pool for VEGAS100 2019/20 is £150,000. This is a combination of all expenses paid Vegas seats, cash and sponsorship prizes and this will be honoured in full.

The 2020/21 season commenced on the 26th January 2020 as normal. On the 23rd March the Government announced a complete lockdown and Redtooth Poker was suspended. All venues were invoiced up to and including Friday 20th March 2020. This meant that venues were only charged for 8 weeks of the 13 week Season 1, equating to 60% income. Season 1 Regional Finals were eventually rescheduled online during October 2020. Even though we only received 60% income, we gave away 100% of the prizes, 19 VEGAS100 seats plus cash for players finishing 2nd to 8th, at a total cost of £32,300.

The league was fully suspended between the 20th March and the 27th September, wiping out Season 2 and the majority of Season 3. During this period we had numerous aborted plans to restart the league. The Government initially announced the casinos could reopen on the 1st August in England, only to move that date back to the 16th August. The general feeling in the Redtooth office being that August was too early to resume live poker in pubs and taking the ethical path, we planned for an early October resumption. During the month of September we sent out 280 FREE Restart Up Poker Packs which included a free table and 20 decks of cards per venue, total cost of over £30k. Before the league resumed, but after sending out all of the equipment, one of the national Pub Co’s withdrew all of their venues siting health and safety reasons. Within two weeks of resumption, a large portion of these venues went into Tier 2 & 3 and their accounts were suspended again. A 4-week national lockdown was then implemented and we are now waiting for the Government’s announcement on Thursday to see if any venues will be able to resume again, these can only be venues in Tier 1. In short, and taking into account the free equipment we are projecting a loss for Season 4 and the year.

Some good news, over 100 venues moved their leagues online during mid-October and this revenue should go towards paying some of the ongoing running costs. Redtooth is firmly established as the country’s leading provider of entertainment to pubs with a team of 18 people working out of two buildings in Derbyshire. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Redtooth is proud to have retained all but one of its staff (the one, taking early retirement). The only thing worse at this moment in time than being part of the hospitality industry is being part of the supply chain to the hospitality industry. During the 9-months of restrictions, Redtooth has received no help towards rent and rates and with the exception of some much appreciated Furlough money has had to cover 100% of its ongoing overheads.

During lockdown, we have run numerous online tournaments giving players the opportunity to win seats into VEGAS100 2021. When taking into account administration costs, the revenue generated from these just about covers the cost of the trips. The number of Vegas trips available for the current online leagues and the decimated Season 4, plus 1 further round of National Finals are still unknown, but these will work out at a ratio of 1 seat per 100 qualifiers which is substantially better odds for most people than if we were running our regular live Regional Finals.

So to summarise Season 2020/21…

  • We received 8 weeks regular subscriptions from a 52 week year
  • We gave away £30k worth of FREE Restart Packs
  • In January 2020, we took delivery of 4,000 dated league winners trophies at a cost of £80k, the majority of these will have no use and will have to be thrown away
  • We estimate that there will be 60-70 qualifiers for VEGAS100 2020/21
  • 70 seats and a £5k sponsorship package equates to over 50% of the regular VEGAS100 prize pool of £150,000 (110 seats and £25k cash and sponsorship), considering that Redtooth is currently trading at 15%, this means that a portion of these prizes will be paid for out of reserves

After a seven month wait, Virgin finally returned our money in early October. From this we have paid back £30k to players and guests in the form of refunds. We have allowed players who have won seats in both 2020 and 2021 VEGAS100 Finals, to move one of those seats on to 2022. In reality we would have been better not running a VEGAS100 2021 with only 8 weeks of a full 52-week season being completed, but instead of disappointing players that have won seats and not being able to travel in February, we thought the best solution was to merge the two Finals. Our friends at The Orleans, have confirmed to us that as we are only there 5 days out of the 8-day span as a group then they wouldn’t be able to run two separate tournaments along with the Welcome Tournament in that short period of time, knowing that VEGAS100 runs over two days.

So to summarise Vegas in May 2021…

  • Taking into account the dropouts from VEGAS100 2020, the reduced seats in VEGAS100 2021, plus players that have won seats in both and moved one of those seats on to 2022, we estimate that the main event should consist of around 150 runners with a total prize pool of £30k. The winner from each year winning a £5k sponsorship package and the 150 runners playing for what is a regular prize pool
  • For the players suggesting that the prize pool is £20k light, then they are correct. In fact the prize pool in total for VEGAS100 2021 is £70k light but you have to take into account that the league hasn’t run for the majority of the year and that Redtooth are only trading at 15%

As we said in the previous post our only competitor has gone by the wayside, taking all the subscription and prize money with them.
I want to finish by thanking all of our amazing venues and players, there is light at the end of the tunnel, Redtooth Poker will be restored in a 1,000 venues across the country and we will put this nightmare behind us. For all players and guests traveling to Las Vegas in May 2021 (fingers crossed that life has returned back to normal by then) you have my promise that myself and all my staff will endeavor as always to make it a trip of a lifetime.

Most of Redtooth Poker staff are furloughed currently, but I am in the office Monday to Friday 9-5pm and I am happy to listen to any of your comments or concerns. You can contact me directly on 01246 813713.

Regards – Martin Green Managing Director Of Redtooth LTD