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Sanya Vugraph Finals Only on OurGame not BBO

#1 User is offline   JanM 

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Posted 2014-August-02, 09:53

The WBF has entered into an agreement with OurGame that grants OurGame exclusive rights to broadcast the finals of the events in Sanya. WBF officials assured me that the Vugraph broadcast will be available using a web browser, will not require registration, and will have English commentary. Despite these assurances, I have short term, long term and philosophical concerns about this. I want to be absolutely clear that these opinions are mine alone and are not USBF positions. I have posted this both here and on BridgeWinners because I think some people read only one of the two.

Short Term Concerns
At the moment, if you want to watch Vugraph on OurGame, you must register at their site and download software to your computer. In order to register, you must have a Chinese identity number. The OurGame website is in Chinese. See <http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/ourgame-for-non-chinese-speakers/> for more information on the current state of affairs re OurGame.

The World Bridge Series takes place in Sanya in two months. When it comes to computer software, it often seems that things take longer than expected and don’t work as well as expected. I hope this instance will be different, but I am concerned that those of us who are not Chinese will in fact not be able to access Vugraph from the finals in Sanya on a web browser.

At the moment, as far as I know, there is no English commentary on OurGame broadcasts. I know very well how hard it is to get good commentators for Vugraph. Even on BBO, we often have problems, and OurGame doesn’t, at least now, have the sort of connections and history with the excellent commentators who help us make BBO Vugraph more interesting. I have no idea whether they have the capability for voice commentary, and although I only rarely have the opportunity to listen to that (it would be too distracting when I am working as a Vugraph operator or organizer, even if I were able to listen to it without having any “leakage” to the room), I know it is very popular with the Vugraph audience, and I hope it will be available from the finals in Sanya.

Long Term Concerns
My long term concerns arise from my belief that Vugraph is important to the growth of our game (without capital letters ☺). I may occasionally be unhappy that I don’t have enough money to do something I’d like to do with Vugraph, but I feel very strongly that the solution is not to charge for Vugraph. I recognize that there are die hard Vugraph fans who would pay $10 or $20 to watch, and it is possible that charging would make economic sense for someone organizing the broadcast. But I think that one of the ways in which Vugraph can help keep bridge alive is if people who are only casually interested in bridge have the opportunity to watch experts compete at the highest level and hopefully become hooked. Those casual people aren’t going to watch if they have to pay. Drug dealers and cigarette companies know that the way to build your customer base is to give out free samples, and so should we.

But OurGame paid a very large amount of money for the exclusive rights to broadcast the finals from Sanya. Before you ask, I don’t actually know how much it will cost them, but they paid the $300,000 the WBF charges for holding a World Championship in a specific location and are also supplying playing site, Vugraph operators, caddies and other personnel, and some equipment for Sanya. A knowledgeable person suggested it was going to cost them in the neighborhood of a million dollars in all, and I have no reason to doubt that. OurGame is, as far as I know, designed to make money. I worry that in the future they will seek exclusive rights to all Vugraph from World Championships and that they will eventually charge the audience. I hope I’m wrong.

Philosophical Concerns
I know that if BBO hadn’t developed internet Vugraph probably someone else would have. But in fact, BBO did. We all owe BBO a debt for all of the (originally unpaid) time and effort they put into Vugraph. I would be very surprised if we’d have the great Vugraph we now have without them. It just feels wrong to me that they should be told “sorry, but you didn’t want to pay us for exclusive rights and someone else did.” I probably can’t justify that feeling, which is why I call it philosophical. But I have it nonetheless.

When I asked Fred & Uday about all of this, Fred shared with me the letter he wrote to the WBF President when BBO was asked to bid for Vugraph rights. His letter says some of what I’ve said above and many other things in what is, to me, a very persuasive way. I don’t want to try to summarize or extract from that letter, so I’ve posted it in its entirety on the USBF site (one of my perks as an unpaid USBF volunteer is use of the USBF website) and you can read it at http://usbf.org/docs...f%20vugraph.pdf
Jan Martel, who should probably state that she is not speaking on behalf of the USBF, the ACBL, the WBF Systems Committee, or any member of any Systems Committee or Laws Commission.
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#2 User is offline   helene_t 

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Posted 2014-August-02, 16:37

BBO's offer to WBF looks very generous to me
The world would be such a happy place, if only everyone played Acol :) --- TramTicket
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#3 User is offline   hrothgar 

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Posted 2014-August-02, 16:46

Please note: I am speaking strictly for myself here and a not for my employer.

Anyone stupid enough to install a random Chinese binary on their machine deserves what they get.
Alderaan delenda est
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#4 User is offline   hrothgar 

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Posted 2014-August-02, 17:07

One thing that I do find rather annoying. Years and years ago, when BBO was first getting started with VuGraphs I tried to convince Fred and Co that there was an advantage to using BBO's then dominant position to push for open standards for Vugraph and the like. Didn't have much luck.

Now we're all screwed.
Alderaan delenda est
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#5 User is offline   barmar 

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Posted 2014-August-02, 20:50

View Posthrothgar, on 2014-August-02, 17:07, said:

One thing that I do find rather annoying. Years and years ago, when BBO was first getting started with VuGraphs I tried to convince Fred and Co that there was an advantage to using BBO's then dominant position to push for open standards for Vugraph and the like. Didn't have much luck.

How would that have helped? An open standard might allow multiple providers to display the Vugraph, but it doesn't force them to. If they can make a better financial arrangement with an exclusive contract, they may go that way.

#6 User is offline   uday 

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Posted 2014-August-03, 10:34

Any organization that wants to host a WBF tourney has to fork over (i think) cash in the range of 300K to 400K in order to be able to host the tournament.

Normally, it is groups like the USBF that raise the money (as the USBF did for Philadelphia a couple of years ago). I don't know what sort of organization usually pays the WBF, or whether it recoups part of the initial payment via card fees, and/or whether those are split w/the WBF.

The Sanya deal is unusual in that the people w/the cash received exclusive vug. rights as part of the payback for the money.

I'm guessing this is the first time a for-profit company has raised the money. In the past, the sponsoring organization has usually *wanted* maximum exposure, without seeming to care much where that came from. This time is a little different, since the sponsoring organization is a gaming site and has its own plans, which presumably involve acquiring customers rather than maximizing exposure.

I can't make sense of the ROI on a deal like this but maybe that's why we haven't IPO'd and they have :)

I find the tension between $ and promotion of the game difficult to understand. It is simple enough for a for-profit, but seems harder to fathom when someone like the WBF is involved.
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#7 User is offline   jallerton 

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Posted 2014-August-10, 15:41

View Postuday, on 2014-August-03, 10:34, said:

Any organization that wants to host a WBF tourney has to fork over (i think) cash in the range of 300K to 400K in order to be able to host the tournament.


This seems the wrong way round to me. If anything, the WBF should be paying for the organisation of its own tournaments.

What does the WBF do with this money? Isn't it a not-for-profit organisation?
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#8 User is offline   DenisO 

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Posted 2014-October-22, 01:54

Does anyone know if the Ourgame Vugraph generates a .lin or .pbn file so that permanent records of the finals will be readily available?
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#9 User is offline   GreenMan 

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Posted 2014-October-22, 03:34

View Postjallerton, on 2014-August-10, 15:41, said:

This seems the wrong way round to me. If anything, the WBF should be paying for the organisation of its own tournaments.


I used to do some editing for a magazine aimed at nonprofit organizations with an emphasis on arranging events such as annual conferences and conventions, and a sister magazine concerned with venues for competitive events, so I know a little bit about how these things generally go. I expect someone more knowledgeable will correct anything I get wrong.

The WBF does organize its own tournaments, in the sense that it hires the directors and arranges for equipment and scheduling. The tournament site will have people traveling in from around the world who will pay for hotel rooms, restaurant meals, taxicabs and so forth. This is a financial boon for the host city, not as large as a Super Bowl or a World Cup but still worth competing for. The host city, Sanya in this case, pays the WBF a fee for the right to host the event and expects to earn it back and more in room and food taxes, plus it may sell sponsorships or other rights, which is where Ourgame probably comes in.

These arrangements have many moving parts, and I wouldn't want to guess at any of the details. But that's the general way these things happen IME.
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